Elections in Nigeria 2019

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The presidential and parliamentary elections in Nigeria 2019 took place on February 23, partially extended until February 24. They were organized by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The election was the sixth since the end of military rule in 1999. With over 84 million registered, it was the largest election ever held in Africa . The election date was originally scheduled for February 16, 2019. The March 2 elections for governors, state parliaments and local councils have been postponed to March 9, 2019.

Incumbent Muhammadu Buhari won the presidential election with around 56% of the vote, ahead of his challenger Atiku Abubakar , who received around 41%. Buhari's All Progressives Congress received a majority in both houses of parliament .

Election mode

Presidential and parliamentary elections are held simultaneously every four years in Nigeria .

Presidential candidates are determined in primary elections in their parties. You run for the office of Vice President together with a candidate. The president is determined by a simple majority , but he must have at least 25% of the votes in at least two-thirds of the states. If no candidate succeeds, there will be a runoff election .

On the same day, the 360 ​​MPs of the House of Representatives of Nigeria are elected by majority vote in as many constituencies . The 109 members of the Senate are also determined by majority voting, three MPs in each of the three constituencies of the states and one in the Federal Capital Territory .

Over 84 million Nigerians were registered as eligible voters. There were 119,974 polling stations.

Candidates for the presidential election

Incumbent Muhammadu Buhari (2015)
Atiku Abubakar (2010)

The former general and military ruler Muhammadu Buhari (* 1942) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was elected president in the 2015 elections and has now run again. As in 2015, his candidate for Vice President was Yemi Osinbajo . Buhari was accused of failing to keep many election promises; In addition to the conflicts with the Boko Haram in the north of the country, there were bloody unrest between nomads and settled farmers in central areas.

Atiku Abubakar (* 1946), who ran for the People's Democratic Party (PDP), was one of Buhari's challengers . From 1999 to 2007 he was Vice President; in the run-up to the 2015 elections, he had taken third place in the APC primaries. Abubakar's PDP provided Goodluck Jonathan as president until 2015 . Abubakar became wealthy as an entrepreneur; the origin of his fortune is disputed. In the United States, he is in principle banned from entering the country on suspicion of corruption .

Further candidates (selection):

A list dated October 8, 2018 indicated 35 presidential candidates, including six women. The electoral commission's final list, published in January 2019, gave the names of 73 presidential candidates and the same number of vice-presidential candidates.

Done in the run-up to the elections

Around three weeks before the election date, Buhari replaced Chief Justice Walter Onnoghen with a lawyer from his home region. This is responsible for possible objections to the election result. Shortly before the election date, two houses with election papers burned down. Possible manipulations were feared.

A few hours before the start of the elections on February 16, 2019, the head of the electoral commission announced a postponement to February 23, 2019. The reasons given were a lack of election papers in some areas and bad weather. Government and opposition camps blamed each other for the shift. The regional elections were postponed by one week to March 9, 2019.

The head of the International Election Observation Commission was the former President of Botswana , Festus Mogae . The African Union delegation was headed by former Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn .

Before the elections, all eligible voters should receive a voting card (Permanent Voting Card) when they register, which is verified in a card reader at the polling station . However, many eligible voters had not received a voting card; however, eleven million voting cards were not used. After the postponement of the elections on February 16, the destruction of 4,600 readers in a fire could be compensated for by using reserves from other regions. Polling stations have been set up in camps for internally displaced persons in Borno state , where the activities of the terrorist group Boko Haram are strongest .

General election

91 parties were registered for parliamentary elections.

In 2015 the APC won 225 seats in the House of Representatives, the PDP 125 and other parties 10 seats. The numbers changed as a result of transfers during the legislative period. In the 2015 Senate elections, the APC received 60 seats and the PDP the remaining 49.

On March 4, 2019, 93 mandates in the House of Representatives were confirmed for the APC and 38 for the PDP; the remaining constituencies had not yet been counted. The votes in the Senate election were also not yet fully counted.

procedure

The elections have been described as "the poorest in incidents" in Nigerian history. However, there were isolated problems such as polling stations that opened late, missing reading devices and numerous deaths from violence. Some polling stations were still open the following day due to problems on the actual election day. The number of dead was given a few days later as 56.

In many cases the voters documented the process with smartphones in order to prevent irregularities.

Results

presidential election

Majorities in the presidential election in the states

The election commission announced the results of the presidential election on the evening of February 26, 2019. Accordingly, Buhari received around 56% of the vote, Abubakar 41%. While Buhari won in the entire northern part of the country and in the metropolis of Lagos , Abubakar won the majority in most of the southern states and in the capital Abuja . All other candidates achieved results below half a percent. The PDP claimed that the result had been manipulated and spoke of "serious electoral fraud".

The election commission announced the following number of votes (only candidates with more than 30,000 votes are listed here):

  • Muhammadu Buhari (APC): 15.191.847
  • Atiku Abubakar (PDP): 11,262,978
  • Nicolas Felix (PCP): 110.196
  • Obadiah Mailafia (ADC): 97.874
  • John Wilson Terwase Gbor (APGA): 66.851
  • Sani Yusuf Yabagi (ADP): 54,930
  • Davidson Isibor Akhimien (GDPN): 41,852
  • Aliyu Hassan Ibrahim (APA): 36,866
  • Donald Duke (SDP): 34,746
  • Omoyele Sowore (AAC): 33,953

The turnout was given as 35.66%.

On October 30, 2019, the Supreme Court dismissed an appeal by the PDP against the result.

Allocation of seats in the Senate

At the beginning of April 2019, 106 seats were allocated, 64 of them for the APC, 41 for the PDP and one for the Young Progressive Party (YPP).

The incumbent Senate President Bukola Saraki (PDP, formerly APC) was not re-elected to the Senate.

Distribution of seats in the House of Representatives

At the beginning of April 2019, 352 seats were assigned, of which 217 for the APC, 115 for the PDP, nine for the APGA, three for the ADC, two each for the PRP and AA and one each for APM, SDP and ADP. There are at least eleven women among the MPs.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ whales Odunsi: Nigeria elections: American Bar Association states position, condemns Onnoghen's removal. dailypost.ng of February 22, 2019 (English), accessed on February 22, 2019
  2. ↑ Election mode at electionguide.org (English), accessed on February 15, 2019
  3. ↑ a b Independent National Electoral Commission (English), accessed February 10, 2019
  4. ↑ Silja Fröhlich, Ineke Mules: Old men for a new Nigeria. dw.com on February 15, 2019, accessed on February 15, 2019
  5. ↑ Christoph Titz: Nigeria votes - Africa holds its breath. Spiegel Online from February 23, 2019, accessed on February 23, 2019
  6. ↑ 35-year-old declares to take Buhari's job in 2019- pulse.ng
  7. ^ I will run for Presidency - Ex-Cross River governor, Donald Duke. Daily Post
  8. ↑ 2019 Presidency: Is Fela Durotoye overreaching himself? Vanguard, March 3, 2018
  9. ↑ Nigeria election: Oby Ezekwesili to stand for president. BBC News, October 8, 2018
  10. ↑ a b c 22 Other Nigerians Eyeing Buhari's Job. Premium Times, March 6, 2018
  11. ↑ 2019: Kwankwaso flags off presidential campaign in Anambra. Daily Post
  12. ↑ 2019: Lamido declares presidential ambition. Vanguard
  13. ↑ Braihma Taiwo: Mailafia Emerges ADC Presidential Candidate . This day. Retrieved January 14, 2019.
  14. ^ Ex-CBN Deputy Governor, Moghalu Declares Presidential Bid Thisday
  15. ↑ 2019: PT presidential candidate flags-off campaign , The News. Accessed January 14, 2019. 
  16. ↑ I'll contest for president in 2019, says Sonaiya. Punch
  17. ↑ How I will defeat Buhari in 2019 - Omoyele Sowore. Premium Times
  18. ↑ Samson Toromade: List of presidential candidates contesting next year's election. pulse.ng of August 10, 2018, accessed on February 13, 2019
  19. ↑ List of presidential and vice-presidential candidates at inecnigeria.org, accessed on February 26, 2019
  20. ↑ Camillus Eboh: Nigeria tribunal issues arrest warrant for top judge before elections. reuters.com of February 13, 2019 (English), accessed on February 13, 2019
  21. ↑ Before elections in Nigeria: Concerns about manipulation are growing. deutschlandfunk.de from February 11, 2019, accessed on February 13, 2019
  22. ↑ Presidential election in Nigeria postponed at short notice. sueddeutsche.de of February 16, 2019, accessed on February 16, 2019
  23. ↑ Mayeni Jones: Nigeria election 2019: Who benefits from poll delay? bbc.com of February 20, 2019 (English), accessed on February 21, 2019
  24. ↑ a b Katrin Gänsler: Elections in Nigeria: the smartphone, the truth and the lie. dw.com on February 25, 2019, accessed on February 25, 2019
  25. ↑ a b Christopher Giles, Peter Mwai: Nigerian elections2019: is the country prepared? bbc.com of February 22, 2019 (English), accessed on February 22, 2019
  26. ↑ Interim status of nigeriaelections.stearsng.com from March 4, 2019 (English), accessed on March 4, 2019
  27. ^ Johannes Dieterich: The elections in Nigeria went surprisingly smoothly. derstandard.at of February 24, 2019, accessed on February 24, 2019
  28. ↑ Cara Anna, Rodney Muhuzuma: Some polling stations shut open a day after voting. bbc.com of February 24, 2019 (English), accessed on February 25, 2019
  29. ↑ a b aar / dpa / AFP: Muhammadu Buhari remains president. Spiegel Online from February 27, 2019, accessed on February 27, 2019
  30. ↑ Election results by state at bbc.com on February 27, 2019 (English), accessed on February 27, 2019
  31. ↑ Why INEC's Yakubu declared Buhari winner of 2019 presidential election. vanguardngr.com of February 27, 2019 (English), accessed on February 27, 2019
  32. ^ Presidential election results. inecnigeria.org (English; ODF), accessed on March 10, 2019
  33. ↑ Nigerai: Supreme Court dismisses appeal against Buhari's re-election. africanews.com, October 30, 2019, accessed October 30, 2019
  34. ↑ a b Distribution of Senate and House of Representatives seats electionguide.org of April 6, 2019 (English), accessed on April 6, 2019
  35. ↑ Naziru Mikuilu: Nigeria election 2019: big winners and big losers. bbc.com of March 3, 2019 (English), accessed on March 29, 2019