Under the watchful eyes of police officers and representatives from political parties, hundreds of cardboard boxes containing ballots are loaded into trucks in Lagos. On Saturday, Nigerians will cast ballots to choose a new leader for the country’s largest economy in Africa after President Muhammadu Buhari steps down after eight years in office.
“One of the most important tasks for INEC at this time is to gather these delicate materials—ballot papers and result sheets—from the Central Bank of Nigeria in Lagos and transport them to the state’s 20 local government areas. This has symbolic significance because it signals the beginning of the electoral process “said INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner in Lagos, Olusegun Agbaje.
The ballot will also include candidates for the House of Representatives and Senate of the federal government.
The majority of the nation’s 36 states will hold governorship elections on March 11 in addition to voting for state legislators in each state.
** “Everything has moved to local government level as a result of the movement of these materials. Therefore, the procedure has begun until we receive the final results from Abuja for the presidential election and the centers at the state level on Saturday “Olusegun Agbaje made a comment.
Analysts predict that three candidates will win the presidency out of the 18 contestants:
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar, 76. Abubakar, a former vice president, has consistently sought the presidency; he ran in 2007 and 2009 and lost the party’s nomination in 1993, 2011 and 2015.
A candidate must receive the most votes and at least 25% of the total votes cast in at least two-thirds of the 36 states plus Abuja in order to be declared the winner of the presidential election.
There will be a run-off between the top two candidates within 21 days if none of the candidates meet the requirements, though this has never happened in Nigerian history.
