Nigerian Presidential Election: Buhari ahead, APC leads PDP

Unofficial results of the Nigerian Presidential election from northern and southwestern regions showed the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) leading the presidential race against ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP).

Millions of Nigerians went to the polls Saturday to elect a new president, 360 House of Representatives members and 109 senators. More than 300 polling stations were opened Sunday to conclude the presidential election and official results will be available at the INEC site within 48 hours.

Marred by violence and delays, voting in Nigeria's presidential election was extended for a second day, until Sunday, March 29, in some parts of the western African countries, as counting started in other areas.

“There were places where there were challenges,” Kayode Idowu, a spokesman for Nigeria’s election commission, was quoted by The Wall Street Journal.

“For those areas there’s nothing one can do, other than say, well, so be it, come back tomorrow.”


The new system requires votes to register first using biometric cards with their fingerprints before casting their votes.Using the electronic verification system for the first time, Saturday's voting was hindered by several technical problems and delays that left many at polling station frustrated.

In several sites of the 150,000 polling stations nationwide, voters complained that card readers were working slowly or not at all.

"We have had 100% failure reading fingerprints", Kofar Fada, an INEC worker in the rural Rano local government area of Kano, a state in Nigeria's predominantly Muslim north, told Al Jazeera.


"It (the technical problems and extension) will not affect returns on (the) presidential election," the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Attahiru Jega, told Agence France Presse (AFP).