In a joint press conference held in the nation’s capital, Abuja, the main opposition parties in Nigeria demanded new elections and denounced the results that are currently being released by the electoral authority as “heavily doctored and manipulated.”
In a joint statement released on Tuesday in Abuja, the Peoples Democratic Party, Labour Party, and African Democratic Congress stated that their parties would no longer participate in the ongoing collation process there and that they had lost faith in Mahmood Yakubu, the chairman of the electoral body.
The parties urged the Independent National Electoral Commission to elect a new head as well as hold fresh elections (INEC).
“We call on the international community to note that the results being declared at the National Collation centre have been heavily doctored and manipulated and do not reflect the wishes of Nigerians expressed at the polls on February 25, 2023,” they said.
The election process has been dogged with controversy, and the announcement at the national collation center in Abuja has seen some tense moments, with opposition party members walking out of the collation center as the results were being announced Monday.
Several observers including the European Union have said the election fell short of expectations and “lacked transparency.”
“The election fell well short of Nigerian citizens’ reasonable expectations,” said a joint observer mission of the International Republican Institute (IRI) and National Democratic Institute (NDI).
Ruling party candidate Bola Ahmed Tinubu is so far leading the race with nearly half of the vote already tallied Tuesday, according to the country’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) results.
23 out of 36 states have declared their results at state level. The leading opposition party PDP’s Atiku Abubakar is in second place, according to INEC figures.
Despite his shock win over Tinubu on his home turf in Lagos State, Peter Obi, the much-touted ‘third force’ candidate is trailing in third place.
According to INEC’s iRev results portal, 83.798 out of 176.846 polling units have submitted their results.
INEC meanwhile continues to announce results coming in, despite fierce criticism of the commission’s handling of how the elections with widespread reports of delays, allegations of voter manipulation and polling stations that failed to open leaving disappointed voters unable to participate.
“The conduct of the February 25, 2023 election has been marred by widespread violence, rigging, intimidation of voters, doctoring of the results, and violation of the laid down electoral process which was communicated by the national electoral body, INEC,” the People’s Democratic Party and the Labour party said in a joint statement.
Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has also called for elections that lacked credibility to be cancelled.
But the government warned him not to truncate the #2023GeneralElections with “his inciting, self-serving and provocative letter on the elections,” in a statement from Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed.
Meanwhile Yakubu asked any candidate with complaints to seek redress in the courts during a results announcement in Abuja Monday.
Yakubu says he plans to continue with results announcement despite complaints.