Protests erupt in Nigeria over alleged election fraud

Protests erupt in Nigeria over alleged election fraud.
After a widely-criticised election, protests have unsurprisingly broken out in Nigeria. Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is leading the demonstrations against the alleged election fraud, which has been denounced by observers. The situation is tense, and it remains to be seen how the Nigerian government will respond to the growing unrest.
The electoral body last week declared Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner to take over from President Muhammadu Buhari in May. This is a significant development in Nigerian politics, as Tinubu is a well-known figure in the country. He is a former governor of Lagos State and has been a key player in the APC since its formation. Tinubu’s victory is a major boost for the APC, which is looking to retain power in the upcoming presidential election.
Almost 25 million people cast ballots in a vote that was largely peaceful but marred by long delays and technical glitches, angering voters and opposition parties who have claimed massive vote-rigging.
Abubakar’s supporters and members of his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) dressed in black to walk to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)’s headquarters in Abuja and submit a petition, claiming electoral fraud.
INEC has “direct involvement in aiding and abetting the monumental rigging and manipulation of the election results in favour of the ruling party,” said Iyorchia Ayu, the PDP chairman.
“It is really an appalling situation,” said another PDP leader, Baraka Sani, surrounded by protesters with banners saying “Save our democracy” and “INEC is corrupt”.
The commission has acknowledged technical difficulties on the day of the vote but rejects claims of fraud.
The Labour Party’s Peter Obi has rejected the results of the Nigerian presidential election, and said he will go to court to prove that he won the race. Obi, who came in third in the election, said that the election was marred by irregularities and that he has evidence that he won the race. He called on Nigerians to support his challenge to the results in court.
Running for a sixth time, “Atiku”, as Abubakar is known, has not clearly said if he is going to court, but he is consulting lawyers to “decide the next line of action”.
Nigerian elections have often been marred by fraud allegations.
In a bid to improve transparency, INEC this year introduced biometric voter identification for the first time at the national level as well as IReV, a central online database for uploading results.
But some voters and opposition parties said failures in the system when uploading tallies allowed for ballot manipulation and disparities between the manual and online results.
Problems with the new technology also caused huge delays and queues, discouraging some from voting.
The 2019 presidential election in Indonesia was marked by low turnout, with just over 27 percent of registered voters casting their ballots. This was even lower than the turnout in the previous election. Part of the reason for the low turnout may be due to the fact that the election was held on a work day.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is set to address some of the concerns raised by parties and voters before key governorship and local assembly elections on Saturday.
The commission has come under fire for a number of issues in the lead up to the elections, including the late delivery of voting materials and the removal of some candidates from the ballot.
However, INEC has said that it is committed to ensuring that the elections are free, fair, and credible, and that all eligible voters will be able to exercise their franchise.
The governorship and local assembly elections are set to take place in 29 states across the country, and will be keenly contested by a number of political parties.