Nigeria elections: Ruling party's Bola Tinubu declared president-elect in spite of oppn uproar

Ruling party candidate Bola Tinubu has been declared the president-elect by Nigeria's electoral commission following a disputed weekend election. The ceremony was not attended by the two main opposition parties who demanded the vote be scrapped.

Tinubu laterstood up for the integrity of the national election and called on citizens to unite around him. Opposition parties have called the election "flawed".

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said that All Progressives Congress (APC) party candidate Tinubu won 8.79 million votes. Opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate Atiku Abubakar garnered 6.9 million votes, while Labour Party's Peter Obi won 6.1 million votes.

"I am very happy I have been elected the president of the federal republic of Nigeria," Tinubu said to cheers in Abuja. "This is a serious mandate. I hereby accept it."

The electoral process in the country encountered problems since new technology was being used in the elections. However, there were issues with the functioning of the system and Nigeria's notoriously inadequate communications network could not handle it.

TheINEC had earlier said that the results from each polling unit will be uploaded to its website in real time. However, the entire thing faced several hurdles and many units were unable to do so immediately, leading to distrust in the process.

Thousands of results have still to be uploaded.

The failings in the system have led the main opposition parties of Atiku and Obi to reject the results as fraudulent.

"I commend INEC for running a credible election no matter what anybody says," Tinubu said. "The lapses that were reported, they were relatively few in number and were immaterial to affect the final outcome of the election."

Tinubu's victory extends the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) party's grip on power in Africa's most populous nation, which is also Africa's top oil producer.

According to Nigerian electoral law, a candidate simply needs more votes than their rivals to win, provided they get 25 per cent of the vote in at least two-thirds of the 36 states and the federal capital Abuja.

(With inputs from agencies)

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