ABUJA, Nigeria — Election Day violence killed at the very least 39 folks throughout Nigeria, civil society teams reported, and with ballot-counting halted and rumors flying, Nigerians had been left ready on Monday for an announcement of the winner within the presidential contest.
With President Muhammadu Buhari vying for a second term towards greater than 70 challengers, elections officers briefly halted the depend, saying that outcomes from Saturday’s voting had but to be obtained from all districts.
The 18-hour hole till tabulation was to start once more Monday morning left time for extra rumors to unfold about whether or not the delay was serving to the main candidates rig the outcomes. At one level, members of the celebration of the main challenger, Atiku Abubakar, declared victory, a notion that was removed from sure.
A lot of the violence on Saturday performed out within the south of the nation, in opposition strongholds the place the tight election is especially contested, in line with Cheta Nwanze, head of analysis at SBM Intelligence, a nonpartisan group that has been essential of the federal government and is monitoring violence based mostly on stories from native police and media.
Delays have been a reigning theme of Nigeria’s presidential election, which had been scheduled to happen per week earlier. To the frustration of many citizens, the nationwide electoral fee, citing logistical points, postponed the vote in the midst of the evening, simply hours earlier than polling locations had been to open.
Each Mr. Buhari, 76, and Mr. Abubakar, 72, a businessman and former vice chairman, spun theories in regards to the delay, every claiming that the fee was stalling to realize a bonus for the opposite camp.
When the vote lastly occurred on Saturday, most polling stations didn’t open till 4 hours after the official beginning time, civil society teams reported. Some opened so late that they needed to reopen on Sunday to present voters the six hours allotted to solid ballots — one purpose cited by election officers for delaying the tabulation.
It grew to become obvious on Sunday and Monday that violence on Election Day had been worse than initially reported.
One election employee was killed by a stray bullet in Rivers State, a restive area the place six civilians and one soldier additionally died in a shootout, in a separate incident, in line with civil society teams. In the identical state, some election employees and cops had been taken hostage, however launched unhurt, the teams stated.
In Lagos, certainly one of Africa’s most populous cities, violence broke out at polling locations, with photographs fired within the air and poll bins set on hearth, the teams stated, including that some voters rioted when election supplies didn’t arrive on time.
“No election in Nigeria ought to value the lifetime of any citizen,” stated Clement Nwankwo, govt director of the Nigeria Civil Society Scenario Room, a coalition of teams monitoring election points.
At a information convention Monday morning, Mr. Nwankwo was essential of Mr. Buhari’s statements that anybody caught making an attempt to rig the vote can be killed, suggesting the message incited violence.
Mr. Nwankwo additionally criticized the deployment of the army to offer safety for elections, calling the act “completely, completely unacceptable.” He famous that troopers had been concerned within the shootout in Rivers State and had blocked voters from reaching the polls in some areas.
“They aren’t wanted,” Mr. Nwankwo stated, recalling the 1980s, when Mr. Buhari, then a common, was in energy underneath a army regime. “We’ve suffered years of army rule on this nation.”
He urged Britain and the USA to impose sanctions on any political figures whose actions led to deaths.
In a room down the corridor from the place Mr. Nwankwo introduced his findings to the general public, the African Union minutes later supplied a glossier view of the elections, citing a small variety of irregularities.
“Over all, usually the method was peaceable and orderly,” stated Hailemariam Desalegn, former prime minister of Ethiopia, who was in control of the bloc’s observer mission in Nigeria.
Different election observers famous that as dangerous because the violence was this yr, prior elections have been worse. One native observer mission reported that the irregularities and points with the election had occurred in what was a small share of the 1000’s of polling stations, which had been set as much as deal with greater than 70 million voters in Africa’s most populous nation.
Mr. Buhari was elected in 2015 after three earlier, unsuccessful runs for the presidency. In workplace, he has spent months abroad receiving medical treatment for unspecified well being issues, and has been unable to stamp out the Islamist Boko Haram insurgency.