The counting of votes in the 2023 presidential and parliamentary elections which started on Saturday 25, has commenced on Sunday 26, 2023.
So far, a number of events have occurred and others are underway since the election started on Saturday.
On voting, Nigerians came out from various parts of the country to perform their civic responsibility at their polling units, for the presidential candidates, Atiku Abubakar of the main opposition, the Peoples Democratic Party; Peter Obi of the insurgent Labour Party, and Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress, with Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples’ Party and others.
Some of the activities that have been recorded since the election started ranges from late arrival of INEC officials to some polling units, slow response of BVAS machine, late commencement of voting in some areas and arrest of some people who attempted to snatch ballot boxes and distract voting in some polling units.
Concerning credible and peaceful elections, a “peace accord” was signed when the candidates in the presidential election met in Abuja, the Federal Capital, on February 23, 2023. They promised to eschew violence and hate speech in the ballot and to accept the outcome peacefully.
Sources say the accord is the idea of the National Peace Committee, a leadership initiative led by Abdulsalami Abubakar, the former Army General who transitioned Nigeria to civil rule in May 1999.
Interestingly, there was an implementation of the currency reform, effectively drying up much of the usual flow of money used to corrupt Nigeria’s elections and infinitely escalating the costs for anyone wishing to buy votes.
The violence recorded in some parts of the country includes Lagos, Edo, Rivers State and other. Surprisingly, most voters were not bothered about the attacks, but decided to come out to vote.
Currently, counting ongoing.
