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Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has begun distributing ballots for Saturday’s election. Ballots are being sent from the commercial capital Lagos to polling stations across the state. Voters will choose among 18 candidates in a first-round vote
Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has begun distributing ballots for Saturday’s election. Ballots are being sent from the commercial capital Lagos to polling stations across the state. Voters will choose among 18 candidates in a first-round vote. A runoff will be held till one candidate gets at least one-quarter of the votes in each of at least two-thirds of all the states. The election process, therefore, can be cumbersome and long since a simple majority is not the criterion.
Elections for the federal parliament – both the House of Representatives and Senate -are also on the ballots. Nigeria has at least 93 million registered voters; of that, 40 percent are under 35. The country has one of the world’s largest youth populations. Close to 64 million people are aged between 18 and 35. The median age is 18.
Analysts maintain that in the closely contested mostly three-cornered election, Peter Obi (61) has the potential to emerge as the dark horse. He is leveraging people’s frustration with the previous administrations. Obi represents the Labour Party, which has been in the wilderness in the election history of the country. Elections have long been usually dominated by Nigeria’s two largest parties.
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Initially seen as an underdog with little political experience, Obi has emerged as a leading candidate, coming ahead of or close behind Bola Tinubu and Atiku Abubakar, leaders representing major political alliances in most polls. Importantly, the Labour Party won only 5,074 votes in the 2019 presidential election; less than 0.1 percent of the vote share. Using social media, Obi reached out to young people and the diaspora and convinced them of the need for change.
