The polls are starting to close for the 2023 presidential elections, and polling unit results from various states across the country have started trickling in, along with other stories. Here are the updates:
Some polling units started the voting process late
Voters in Wumba village, Abuja, experienced difficulties in the voting process. This was due to excess voter turnout. Voters in Yenagoa, Bayelsa had only started sorting ballot papers around 7 p.m. (WAT).
Some voters couldn’t vote at all
Voters in some polling units in Sangotedo and Ajah could not vote. This happened due to the absence of INEC officials. A member of the Citizen Situation room narrated to us how she had to sadly go home after fourteen hours of waiting at the Sangotedo primary school polling unit.
Some elections are postponed across the country
Due to an absence of INEC officials and other difficulties, elections were postponed in certain parts of Bayelsa and Edo states for March 11. The same goes for the Enugu Senatorial Elections. This was due to the death of Labour Party candidate, Oyibo Chukwu.
There was election violence in various parts of Nigeria
Voters in Lagos, particularly in the Ikate-Elegushi and Aguda, experienced various forms of voter suppression. This included thuggery, harassment of voters and destruction of election materials in polling units.
A writer at Zikoko, Omemi, relayed to us how she witnessed voter harassment when she followed her voter friend to her polling unit:
“We were at the polling unit on Oba Elegushi street at 11 a.m. when a group of men, who looked like hoodlums, came and destroyed plastic chairs and scattered the environment. The first set of ballots were cancelled as a result. Even the INEC official ran away with the ballot papers and only returned after much pleading.”
Polling unit results have been seen to trickle in
Polling unit results are slowly being collated at local levels, and have started to be collated in various wards in the country. Citizen has an election tracker for polling unit result updates as they develop.
