In Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa, with 216 million inhabitants, we vote this Saturday, February 25 for the presidential, legislative and senatorial elections, while the country is hit by…

Elections in Nigeria: delay in the start of voting operations

Voting day in Nigeria, in the Kwanar Diso Gwale district, a densely populated and popular district in the center of Kano, February 25, 2023. © Amélie Tulet / RFI

Text by: RFI Follow

3 mins

For the presidential election, eighteen candidates are running.

Voters will have to elect who will succeed President Buhari who is stepping down after serving two terms, as required by the Constitution.

Across the country, most polling stations opened very late - very few polling stations were ready this morning at 8:30 a.m. - time when voting was to start - due to lack of staff and sometimes even equipment, reports our correspondent at Lagos

, Liza Fabbian

There were delays in Lagos, including at the polling station of Bola Tinubu, the candidate of the APC, the incumbent majority party, where officers from the electoral commission arrived very late, shortly before the candidate himself.

Bola Tinubu

went to slip his ballot into the ballot box around 10.30 am, just after his wife who was voting in another district of Lagos.

PDP candidate

Atiku Abubakar

has also already visited his polling station in Yola, Nassarawa State.

He said he was confident in his chances of victory.

Finally, in the middle of the morning,

Peter Obi

, the third in this campaign arrived at his polling station in Anambra, in southeastern Nigeria.

We will no doubt have a somewhat clearer idea of participation later in the day.

This is the great unknown of this election.

In 2019, only a third of Nigerians turned out to vote.

However, the desire for change, especially among young people, could this time change the situation and even, perhaps, lead to an unprecedented second round in Nigeria.

►

To read also

: 2023 general elections under tension in Nigeria

Delay also in the North

In Kano, in the north of Nigeria where the second city of the country is located, in terms of population, Kano, the voting operations also started with delay, reports our special correspondent Amélie Tulet

We had to wait for the distribution of electoral material in the constituency of Kwanar Diso Gwale, in the center of Kano, a very populated, working-class district.

In an alley we saw dozens of people, the women on one side, the men on the other, two queues and one of the office managers who was laying down some rules before officially open the vote.

He asked the audience to remain calm, to be patient, not to show his ballot, the vote being secret.

And then, he brandished the various ballot boxes very high to show everyone that they had arrived empty and sealed.

Saïda, a woman in her sixties, was the first in the queue, arriving very early, around 6 a.m.: "I

want a president who cares about youth, our children, health and education,

she said

, I arrived very early because I want to be sure to vote, I am ready to wait for hours.

In several other polling stations that we visited, the staff of the electoral commission as well as the material had still not arrived, although it was after ten o'clock.

The voters, some of whom came very early, wait either in the street or in the schoolyards.

Elections in Nigeria: delay in the start of voting operations

Elections in Nigeria: delay in the start of voting operations

Delay also in the North

You may like

Trends 24h

Latest