Nigeria election 2023 live: Polls open in presidential vote
Polls have opened in Nigeria’s presidential and parliamentary elections seen as the most open since Africa’s most populous nation switched from military rule to democracy in 1999.
Nigeria, Africa’s largest democracy, is electing a president, vice president, Senate and House of Representatives.
Polls opened at 07:30 GMT and will close at 13:30 GMT.
More than 93 million people are registered to vote.
Nigeria transitioned from army rule to democracy in 1999 but its elections have been plagued by violence and fraud.
This presidential race is seen as the most unpredictable in recent Nigerian history.
The ballot counting and collating process is expected to take several days.
Heavy military presence as voting continues
The Nigerian government is deploying over 425,000 security officials across the country, in what is the biggest security operation during a presidential election in the nation’s history.
Can Nigeria’s ailing kingmaker win the presidency?
Bola Tinubu, regarded as a master strategist and seen by his supporters as Obafemi Awolowo’s political heir, is facing perhaps the toughest hurdles of any kingmaker who has wanted the throne.
Controversies about the true age of the 70-year-old, as well as inconsistencies in his educational and professional qualifications, have long circulated locally. There have also been multiple allegations of state capture and tax evasion from his time as governor. He could not be prosecuted due to the immunity he enjoyed as governor.
EFCC monitoring vote to prevent electoral fraud
Officials from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) are on the ground to deter vote trading and other forms of electoral fraud.
Bola Tinubu, the presidential candidate for the All Progressives Congress (APC), has been greeted by jubilant supporters as he arrived at a polling station in Ikeja to cast his ballot.
BVAS rolled out to accredit voters, upload results
The most notable improvement in this election is the introduction of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) to accredit voters using biometrics, and upload results.
INEC staff are using BVAS to verify voters’ faces and fingerprints before they vote.
In recent elections, the transmission of results has been undertaken manually and electronically. This time, things become even more transparent: results from the polling units are scanned and uploaded to a web portal accessible by registered members of the public.
Several polling stations across Nigeria have yet to open, pointing to logistical difficulties.
In Ikeja, the capital city of Lagos state, INEC officials were setting up polling stations at 9:40am (08:40 GMT), more than one hour past the scheduled time.
Who is Nigeria’s main opposition party’s presidential candidate?
Atiku Abubakar, 76, is the presidential candidate for the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). A former vice president, Abubakar is a perennial hopeful for the top job. He ran in 2007 and 2009, and lost his party’s primaries in 1993, 2011 and 2015.
During his tenure as Nigeria’s vice president between 1999 and 2007, Abubakar opposed the wave of adoption of Islamic law across parts of the country’s Muslim-majority north, the highest-profile Muslim politician from the region to do so.
Abubakar is now fighting the biggest battle of his political career and a record sixth attempt to occupy the highest office in the land.
The vote is being held in 176,606 polling units located in 8,809 registration areas or electoral wards in 774 local government areas nationwide.
Elections will not be held in 240 polling stations, mainly because of insecurity or because communities there have been displaced by violence.
Nigerians are heading to the polls to elect a successor to President Muhammadu Buhari, who is stepping down after eight years at the helm of Africa’s largest economy.
Candidates for the federal parliament – the House of Representatives and Senate – will also be on the ballot sheet.
Polling stations will be open until 2:30pm (13:30 GMT).
The vote comes ahead of governorship elections that will take place on March 11 in most of the 36 states in the country, with voters also casting ballots for state lawmakers in all the states.
-al jazeera
