Travel turmoil brings Nigeria election chaos

ACTIVISTS and campaigners fear that turnout in today’s delayed Nigerian election could be low because the week-long postponement means many people are in the wrong location to vote.

The election has already failed to generate enthusiasm as it pits two elderly establishment figures against each other in a country where the majority of voters are under 35.

In the presidential race, Atiku Abubakar, 72, is challenging incumbent Muhammadu Buhari, 76.

Nigeria’s electoral system says voters can only cast their ballot in the state where they first registered.

Many of the 85 million registered voters travelled to their family home to cast their ballot when the vote was due last weekend – only to return to work once it was delayed. The postponement, announced hours before the polls were due to open, was put down to technical and logistical reasons.

Making two trips can be troublesome in a nation four times the size of the United Kingdom. “I took two days off work to travel, and to exercise my democratic right,” Felix Wilson, 28, told The Telegraph on a 14-hour bus journey back to his home in Lagos. He said he cannot afford to go back again to vote.

The government made yesterday a public holiday to give people time to travel, while fuel suppliers cut prices, and a bus network’s trade union offered discount tickets to voting centres.