Nigeria counts votes in elections to choose new state governors
ABUJA - Nigeria’s election officials counted ballots after polls closed on Saturday in a delayed vote to pick new state governors, amid reports of scattered violence and voter intimidation, including in Lagos, where a tight race was expected.
Polls began closing from 1330 GMT and counting immediately followed, but time was extended where voting started late. Final results are expected by today.
In south eastern Imo state, a hotbed of separatist violence, security forces rescued 19 electoral officials who had been abducted by thugs, but election materials were lost, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said.
“While the commission remains grateful to the security operatives, it condemns such acts of thuggery, intimidation and disenfranchisement of voters,” INEC said in a statement.
Civil society observer group Situation Room said officials were at polling stations by 0830 hours at most polling stations it monitored and also observed vote buying in a few areas.
The INEC is under scrutiny after observers from the European Union, the
Commonwealth and other bodies reported several problems during last month’s presidential election, among them failures in systems designed to prevent vote manipulation.
The observers criticised the INEC for poor planning and voting delays but did not allege fraud. Governors wield enormous influence in Africa’s most populous nation of more than 200 million and their support often decides who becomes president.
Some governors preside over states whose annual budgets are bigger than some small African countries.
The INEC postponed the gubernatorial poll by a week, saying it needed to
reconfigure electronic voting machines that are at the centre of the dispute over the presidential vote won by Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress party.
The race that has generated the most interest is in Lagos, Tinubu’s home state and Nigeria’s commercial hub, where he is nicknamed the “godfather” for his enduring political influence. At stake is control of an annual $4 billion budget and running Africa’s largest mega city of more than 20 million, home to some of the country’s billionaires, including Aliko Dangote who is building a multi-billion-dollar oil refining complex.