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Defeated Nigeria Candidates Vow to Challenge Election Results

Presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, and the Peoples Democratic Party candidate Atiku Abubakar, have rejected the outcome of the presidential poll and vowed to challenge it in court. Abubakar called the result "a rape of democracy" after receiving 29% of the vote, while Obi, who received 25%, told supporters they had been "robbed" of victory, vowing to "prove it to Nigerians".

The politicians have 21 days from the day the results were announced to challenge the result at Nigeria's highest appeal court. President-elect Bola Tinubu, however, expressed his readiness to defend his mandate in court, saying he accepts the decision of the disgruntled opponents to challenge the outcome of the election.

Each of the three major candidates, however, won in 12 states while Tinubu was the only candidate who scored 25% of votes in more than 24 states (he scored it in 30 states), a constitutional requirement to be declared the winner.

Meanwhile, Abiodun Fatai for The Conversation reports that technology nearly derailed the conclusion of the elections, as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) could not fulfill its promise to transmit election results from the polling units on its result viewing portal (IReV).

A day after the critical election, results from only around 35,900 polling stations for the presidential election had been uploaded on the INEC website - just 20% of the 176,000 total. In some cases, uploaded images of results were very blurry, smudged, and illegible. The INEC admitted some technical glitches but insisted the process was free and fair.

The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has since told the losing presidential candidates that it is not mandatory to release election results, electronically.

InFocus

Uwais Abubakar Idris / Deutsche Welle

An election official takes a photo of a voter in Nigeria's 2023 election.

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