On February 16, 2019, 84 million Nigerian voters planned to cast their ballot, deciding whether incumbent Muhammadu Buhari or challenger Atiku Abubakar would gain the presidency. Just five hours prior to the election, the government postponed it to February 23 due to “challenges.”
The Independent National Electoral Commission has attributed the delay to bad weather, challenges distributing voting materials in time, and registration difficulties. The largest logistical roadblock may have been that millions of Permanent Voting Cards (PVCs), which facilitate voter identification, had not been distributed.
The postponement negatively impacted turnout, as the people were required to vote at the polling location at which they had originally registered. Many who had since traveled out of the area they had registered for were unable to cast their votes.
Anticipating these difficulties, the Nigerian government declared the day prior to the election a “public holiday” to allow citizens ample time to return to their polling units. Moreover, airlines Aero Contractor and Arik Air offered special discounts on airline tickets in a “Fly to Vote” special. However, despite these measures, voter turnout was the lowest in 20 years, plummeting from 44% in the 2015 elections to 35.6%. The low voter turnout was also compounded by other problems such as voter fraud and election violence which left 39 people dead.
Buhari was pronounced the winner last week with 56% of the votes. Abubakar refused to recognize the outcome, instead stating: “I hereby reject the result of the February 23, 2019 sham election and will be challenging it in court.”
Article by MoCo Student staff writer Kennedy Salamat of Montgomery Blair High School