Thousands of Nigerian opposition supporters protested Monday against the country’s presidential election results, as calls for a revote intensified. Dressed in black and holding signs, the protesters led by second-place candidate, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, marched to the headquarters of Nigeria’s electoral body in the capital, Abuja, and blocked the entrance as they demanded that authorities hold a new election under better conditions that would bring accurate results.
At least five political parties are challenging last month’s vote, alleging that delays in uploading results from the country’s 177,000 polling stations to the electoral body’s portal could have allowed vote tampering. They also allege there was voter intimidation and cases where people were barred from voting at all.
Some observers have also criticized the conduct of the presidential election. The US ambassador to Nigeria, Mary Beth Leonard, said the election process failed to meet Nigerians’ expectations after years of improvement in the quality of the elections.
Read more here.
