Nigerian ruling-party candidate Bola Tinubu held an early lead in the race to become the next president, with results tallied in more than a third of the West African nation’s three dozen states.
(Bloomberg) — Nigerian ruling-party candidate Bola Tinubu held an early lead in the race to become the next president, with results tallied in more than a third of the West African nation’s three dozen states.
Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress won seven states, compared with four for Atiku Abubakar of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party, according to results released Tuesday by the Independent National Electoral Commission. In a major upset, outsider Peter Obi of the Labour Party secured the most support in Lagos, the country’s commercial center where Tinubu has for decades been the most powerful politician, and two other states.
The opposition New Nigeria Peoples Party won in the northern state of Kano.
Call for Probe Into Allegations of Vote Infractions (Feb. 27, 8:16 a.m.)
The National Peace Committee, a non-governmental organization, urged the electoral authorities to investigate allegations of irregularities in the Feb. 25 election, which it said had a “rather rocky start” with problems around logistics and accreditation countrywide.
The group said it received reports of infractions including voter suppression through targeted violence, inducement of voters and “challenges” in using come of the equipment to conduct the election.
“We appeal to the security agencies to collaborate with INEC in their investigations of these weighty allegations,” it said in a statement on Monday. “Concerns about the failures of the INEC Result Viewing Portals across the country must be thoroughly investigated to ensure transparency.”
Results Trickle In (Feb. 27, 5:50 p.m.)
Nigerian Bonds Rally as Tinubu Leads (Feb. 27, 6:17 p.m.)
Nigerian bonds are posting some of the best gains in emerging markets as investors bet that Tinubu will introduce reforms to pull Africa’s largest economy out of a fiscal mess.
Five of the West African nation’s dollar bonds ranked among the 10 best performers on Monday in a Bloomberg index of 71 emerging and frontier nations. The country’s sovereign risk premium narrowed the most this year on Monday, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. data. The equity benchmark in Lagos rose to an eight-month high.
Nigeria’s bond due 2047 rose 1.8 cents on the dollar to 68.8, cutting its yield by 33 basis points to 11.5%.
Delay in Release of Results Saps Trust in Election (Feb. 27, 3:04 p.m.)
Severe delays by Nigerian authorities in releasing results from the country’s hotly contested presidential election is feeding suspicion that the process is being mismanaged.
The Feb. 25 vote saw the INEC use an electronic tallying process nationally for the first time, a change that was designed to boost shaky public trust in the integrity of the West African nation’s democracy. Instead, the lengthy delays in publishing results from the nearly 177,000 polling units online risks sapping confidence that the election will be free and fair.
–With assistance from Srinivasan Sivabalan, Colleen Goko, Kerim Karakaya and William Clowes.
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