Nigeria: Buhari wins second four-year term in office in highly charged elections

The Nigerian Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Wednesday announced incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari winner of Feb. 23 presidential and parliamentary elections, while the opposition calls for a rerun over vote irregularities.

INEC chairman Mahmood Yakubu said Buhari from All Progressives Congress (APC) won the Sunday presidential vote with 15,191,847 votes against 11,262,978 for his main challenger Atiku Abubakar from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

Buhari, according to the commission, won votes in 19 of the 36 states. Abubakar has been credited with win in 17 states. The INEC put voter turnout at 36 per cent.

The vote initially scheduled for Feb.16 was delayed for one week over logistic problems stoking therefore anger among millions of Nigerians who viewed the move as a maneuver from the ruling APC to rig the elections.

The PDP has rejected the vote verdict over vote irregularities. Osita Chidoka, representing the PDP, said there was a discrepancy of more than 1,600,000 voters in terms of registered voters, local media Naija.com reports.

Chidoka added that votes cancelled over violence in some parts of the country effected more than 2 per cent of the registered voters. The PDP’s member, charging the electoral commission for omitting over 5 million votes, demanded a rerun.

Buhari, 76, said after he was proclaimed winner he will spend the next four years in improving the country’s security, fighting corruption and restructuring the economy.