Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has secured a second term in office after the country’s electoral commission declared him as the winner on Wednesday.
“Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressive Congress, having satisfied the requirements of the law and scored the highest number of votes is hearby declared winner and returned elected,” INEC read out.
Supporters of Buhari had already started celebrating outside the APC party headquarters.
A Reuters tally – based on electoral commission results – showed Buhari won by 56 percent of the vote.
Only around a third of the country’s voters went to the polls, a drop from the last election.
The main opposition party said it doesn’t accept the election result.
It had also rejected previous tallies – on Monday they claimed it was “incorrect and unacceptable”.
The accusations risk ratcheting up tensions in Africa’s biggest economic power.
Saturday’s election was marred by delays, logistical glitches and outbreaks of violence.
Scores of people have been killed since the vote, according to a monitoring organization – though police are yet to provide an official death toll.
Buhari is facing a daunting to-do list.
Nigeria’s economy is still struggling after a recession in 2016, and a decade-old Islamist insurgency has already tainted his first term in office, killing thousands of people in the northeast of the country.
Meanwhile, supporters of Buhari celebrated on Tuesday (February 26) at his party headquarters in Abuja after tallies showed he won a second term at the helm of Africa‘s top oil producer.
The Reuters tally showed Buhari had won 56 percent of the vote compared to 41 percent achieved by his nearest rival – businessman and former vice president Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party.
Buhari, 76, is a former military ruler who took office in 2015 and sought a second term with pledges to fight corruption and overhaul Nigeria’s creaking road and rail network.
