Nigeria’s electoral commission says it will announce the results of the just concluded elections in the coming days.
CCTV’s Claire Munyana who is in Abuja says Commission officers are currently facing criticism from Nigerians due to delays in announcing the results.
Initially INEC had hoped to release the official results within 48hrs after completion of the voting process. This did not work out due to failure of the registration process which saw voting spill over into the next day in some states.
The body says it expects to announce the first results of the tightly contested presidential poll on Tuesday.
Incumbent Goodluck Jonathan is facing a stiff challenge from former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari.
Voting over the weekend was marred by technical hitches, protests and violence linked to Boko Haram.
President Jonathan was among those whose registration to vote was delayed by the technology, which was introduced to prevent fraud.
His Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which had opposed the card readers, called it a “huge national embarrassment”.
Election commission chief Attahiru Jega said only a fraction of the 150,000 card readers being used nationwide had failed.
The presidential and parliamentary elections had been delayed by six weeks because of the insurgency by Boko Haram militants.
The INEC has called upon citizens to be careful on the kind of information they receive from social media and has warned that they are the only network to release the official results.
The EU chief observer, Santiago Fisas, has called on candidates, parties and citizens to respond peacefully to the announcement of the results.
The European Union Election Observation Mission has commended Nigerians for their commitment to the largely peaceful and orderly elections.
This is despite the frustrations and challenges that occasioned the late opening of the poll stations, failure of the PVC,s card readers and violent incidents in some states the process was transparent.
