In Nigeria, an impatient waiting game for presidential election results
Particularly in the north, where Boko Haram is strong, many saw their effort to vote as a defiant step in favor of democracy.
Particularly in the north, where Boko Haram is strong, many saw their effort to vote as a defiant step in favor of democracy.
Like millions of their countrymen, Nigerians in the north are congregating in front of their televisions and radios as results from this weekend鈥檚 election begin to trickle in on national broadcasts.
Many turned out to cast their votes despite the prospect of violence and complications in the voting process. Indeed,聽Boko Haram attacks聽killed 41 people聽and prevented hundreds from voting. But images from the north showed thousands聽from internally displaced persons (IDP) camps standing in long lines to enter the polling centers, and the electoral commissioner in Borno state, Samuel Usman, estimated that more than 70,000 IDPs聽were able to vote.
鈥淥ur聽decision to turn out in large numbers is to resist the Boko Haram threats and intimidation 鈥� [and] to choose our leaders at the local and national level," says Aji Bukar, a refugee from Bama town who currently lives in an IDP camp in Maiduguri. Many used the suspension of curfews to reunite with family and friends at the polling stations.
The electoral commission headquarters in Abuja has started to announce state results, with full election results expected on Tuesday, election commission spokesman聽Kayode Idowu said Monday. Leading opposition candidate Muhammadu Buhari, a native of Daura, is expected to carry most of the north, where he promised to bring more social services in his campaign against incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan.
鈥淣ortherners are obviously committed to voting massively for Buhari,鈥� says Bolarinwa Meekness, a telecommunications manager. 鈥淢any people who have not voted before also came out this time around due to the loud clamor for change."
Already, unconfirmed results indicate that the northern battleground state of Kano went to Mr. Buhari with 89 percent of the vote, Reuters reports. But analysts agree that the race is still too close to call a winner.
After millions of voters waited patiently for hours on Saturday to cast their vote, at least 350 of more than 120,000 polling stations were forced to reopen on Sunday after delays the day before, according to The Wall Street Journal. The biometric card readers, aimed at preventing fraud, performed imperfectly, with even President Jonathan having to try multiple times before he could vote in his southern hometown of Otuoke.
Election rigging has been a central concern. In joint statements, US Secretary of State John Kerry and British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond noted聽that 鈥渢here are disturbing indications that the collation process 鈥� where the votes are finally counted 鈥� may be subject to deliberate political interference.鈥�
Usen Udom, a public affairs analyst in Port Harcourt in Rivers State, also expressed concern about allegations of rigging, particularly in the southern part of the country. The opposition All Progressives Congress has already rejected the outcome in Rivers State and denounced the vote there as "a sham and a charade."
"The Independent Electoral Commission will have to improve on the hitches experienced in some states for the credibility of the election," Mr. Udom says.
For those in the north, like Ms. Aishatu who voted in an IDP camp, the hopes are that the election will bring positive change.聽鈥淲e need change in this country and some of us believe it is through democracy that genuine change will come," she says.