Buhari Wins Nigerian Presidential Election

Muhammadu Buhari was declared the winner on February 27. (Reuters)

Incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari of the ruling All Progressives Congress party was officially declared the winner of the Nigerian presidential election on February 27. In the weeks running up to the election, the outcome was considered too close to call with more than 70 official candidates with the focus on the two main frontrunners. Campaigning on a platform centered around fighting corruption, Buhari secured 56 percent or 15.2 million votes while his main opposition, Atiku Abubakar of the People's Democratic Party (PDP), received 41 percent of the vote, amounting to 11.3 million votes.

Abubakar has refused to accept the results of the election, claiming that the vote was neither free nor fair. One particular issue being cited by Abubakar’s camp involves unrealistically high voter turnout in Nigeria’s northeast states, which are currently under conflict, compared to lower turnout in states without any similar conflict. According to Reuters, Abubakar declared, “It is clear that there were manifest and premeditated malpractices in many states which negate the results announced.”

In addition to the irregularities in voter turnout, the Buhari camp likely benefited from a controversial move by election officials to postpone the original election date by a week. Since Nigeria has no system in place for absentee ballots, many Nigerian voters, some of whom traveled long distances to vote, decided to simply give up and not vote upon hearing about the postponement. Election day also saw several instances of election-related violence with as many as 67 people killed according to Situation Room monitoring.

Reuters reports that the PDP is currently compiling the evidence necessary to challenge the result of this election in court. While there were some irregularities in the election process and some instances of violence, some international observers concluded that those irregularities were insufficient to warrant overturning the results of the election according to the New York Times. For example, YIAGA Africa, a non-profit group that had more than 3,900 observers, concluded that despite any issues around the polls, “the announced election results reflect the votes cast.”

Buhari, who campaigned on fighting corruption, stood in contrast to Abubakar, a former vice president with a large history of corruption who was campaigning on promoting economic growth. Many Nigerians thought Buhari an honest person who did not use the position of president to enrich himself despite opposition criticisms that he only ever prosecuted corruption against his political enemies. Other prominent issues during the election involved counterterrorism and dealing with Boko Haram in particular, issues which favored Buhari with some voters due to his past history as a general. Others, who voted for Abubakar, cited Buhari’s past term as president and his failure to adequately crack down on both corruption and Boko Haram as evidence that he was unfit to lead the country for another term.

After the final results of the election came in, Buhari, according to Reuters, accepted his victory and said, “I will like to make a special appeal to my supporters not to gloat or humiliate the opposition.” For now, it appears that the final result of the election will not be overturned and that the country will likely not break out in violence over potential disputes over the election.