Iran Press/َAfrica: Before the results were announced, the spokesman for Nigeria's main political opposition party claimed to have evidence the vote was rigged.
Buhari, 76, is a former military general who briefly held power in 1984 and 1985 following a coup. He is seen by his supporters as relatively untainted by the corruption that plagues politics in Africa’s most populous nation.
A sluggish economy recovered slightly during his first term, but almost a quarter of the workforce remains unemployed and around half of the population lives on less than $2 a day, Reuters reported.
Buhari has been lauded for his progress against the decade-old Islamist insurgency Boko Haram, which has killed more than 10,000 and displaced millions, but 2018 saw a return to levels of violence not seen in years.
Muhammadu Buhari has won a second term
His main challenger was Atiku Abubakar, a business tycoon and former vice president. Abubakar’s party called for reruns of the polls in four states and said it would challenge the election commission’s numbers in court. According to the official results, Abubakar’s People’s Democratic Party received 41 percent of votes cast, compared to 56 percent for Buhari’s All Progressives Congress.
Past elections in Nigeria have triggered large-scale violence, mostly due to contested results. After the 2011 elections, more than 800 were killed.
The lead-up to Saturday’s election was marked by clashes between supporters of rival politicians. Independent monitoring groups have said more than 250 were killed in election related violence, including around 50 on and since election day.
Nigerian police said on Tuesday that 128 people had been arrested for suspected election-related offences, including ballot box-snatching, vote-trading and impersonation.
Nearly 73 million eligible voters cast their ballots from a pool of more than 70 presidential candidates
The election was initially scheduled for a week earlier, but the election commission postponed the vote just five hours before polls opened due to logistical and operational unpreparedness. On Saturday, many polling stations still opened late.
The country’s presidential elections in 2011 and 2015 were also delayed over logistics and security issues.
The decision to delay this year’s vote was criticized by the chairman of the main opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
The president’s ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) party also criticized the electoral commission for the delay. 101/211/202
Read More:
Election-related violence in Nigeria kills dozens of people
