(Lagos) The counting and in places, the vote, continued on Saturday evening in Nigeria, which elects the president of the most populous country in Africa in a tight ballot between three favorites, after numerous delays.
In this country where 60% of the population is under 25, the desire for change is great: President Muhammadu Buhari, 80, is stepping down as required by the Constitution after two terms of office marked by an explosion of insecurity and poverty.
And for the first time since the return to democracy in 1999, the popularity of an outsider is shaking up the predominance of the two main parties and Nigeria could experience a two-round presidential election.
” A ! Two ! Three ! “, counted aloud the voters of a polling station in Port Harcourt (south-east) at the same time as the electoral agents counted the first ballots.
Juliette Ogbonda, a 30-year-old receptionist, is one of many voters who decided to stay after the vote: “I want to make sure this election is transparent, free and fair.”
More than 87 million voters were called in 176,000 polling stations to choose a president among 18 candidates, as well as deputies and senators.
At 2:30 p.m. local time (8:30 a.m. Eastern), official closing time, the first counts began in Lagos (southeast) or in Abuja (center) where the vote took place globally calmly, noted AFP journalists.
Night is falling
But by early evening, voting continued in many polling stations across the country such as Kano (north), Anambra (southeast) and Lagos (southwest) where voters began voting well after 8 h 30 (official opening time), mainly due to delays in the deployment of equipment or technical failures.
“The vote is still in progress here, because the electoral agents brought the material late”, breathes Kabiru Sani, in front of a polling station in Kano at nightfall. “We are going to exercise our right to vote, no matter how long it takes,” said the determined 47-year-old man.
This is the first time that new technologies have been used on a national scale. The identification of voters by facial and digital recognition should limit the fraud that has tainted previous polls, as should the electronic transfer of results.
During a press briefing in Abuja, the president of the Electoral Commission (Inec), Mahmood Yakubu, acknowledged that security incidents had also “disrupted the vote” in several places, notably in Lagos and in the south-east of the country. . In the state of Bayelsa, the ballot was thus suspended in a hundred polling stations, and will resume on Sunday morning.
In the morning, the candidate of the ruling party (APC) Bola Tinubu, 70, voted in his stronghold of Lagos where, dressed in a blue caftan, he was greeted by a compact crowd.
The former governor (1999-2007) is nicknamed the “godfather” because of his political influence. Yoruba of Muslim faith, he claims to be the only one who can straighten out Nigeria and has already warned: this time, “it’s my turn” to govern.
But nothing is played against his two main opponents. At 76, former vice-president Atiku Abubakar, from the opposition (PDP, in power from 1999 to 2015), will run for the presidency for the sixth time.
Afrobeats Country
Originally from the north and of the Muslim faith, he hopes to win many votes there.
After voting in Yola (north-east), the candidate – who in 2019 had contested his defeat against President Buhari – declared: “this election is more credible than the previous ones”.
The outsider is the former governor of Anambra (south-east) Peter Obi, a 61-year-old Christian, supported by the small Labor Party (LP), and very popular with young people and in his region.
“If this election is free and credible, then I think I will win,” he told AFP after casting his vote in his native village, Amatutu.
This vote is crucial. Nigeria – 216 million inhabitants – should become the third most populous country in the world by 2050, while West Africa is threatened by a strong democratic decline and the spread of jihadist violence.
The continent’s leading economy has become a global cultural power, thanks in particular to Afrobeats, a musical genre that is setting the planet on fire with stars like Burna Boy and Wizkid.
But the future president will inherit above all a myriad of problems: criminal and jihadist violence in the north and center, separatist unrest in the southeast, galloping inflation, generalized impoverishment.
To make matters worse, recent shortages of gasoline and banknotes have sparked riots.
Participation, low in previous elections (33% in 2019) was still unknown at the start of the evening. The Commission has promised to make the results public as soon as possible, it legally has 14 days to do so.