Bola Tinubu is the winner of Nigeria's highly disputed presidential election, officials announced on Wednesday. The ruling party candidate and former Lagos governor takes over from Muhammadu Buhari who stepped down after two terms.
Tinubu, candidate for All Progressives Congress (APC) party, won 8.8 million votes against 6.9 million for opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate Atiku Abubakar and 6.1 million for Labour Party's Peter Obi, according to final results.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, or INEC, confirmed Tinubu as president-elect after he also secured the required 25 percent of votes in two-thirds of Nigeria's 36 states and capital.
Supporters packed into the APC party campaign headquarters in Abuja, dancing to Afrobeats music to greet Tinubu, who arrived wearing a pale blue traditional robe and red cap.
"This is a serious mandate -- I hereby accept it. To serve you... To work with you and make Nigeria great," Tinubu said as supporters cheered "Jagaban", a local chieftain title.
"I appeal to my fellow contestants to let us team together. It is the only nation we have. It is one country that we must build together."
Even before the final tallies, though, Labour and PDP had already called for the vote to be cancelled, alleging massive manipulation of the results. It was not clear whether they would take their case to court.
Renewed hope
Tinubu, 70, a long-time political kingmaker who ran on his experience as Lagos governor from 1999 to 2007, campaigned saying "It's my turn" to govern Africa's largest economy.
He promised "Renewed Hope" but faced questions from rivals over his health, past graft accusations and ties to Buhari, who many critics say failed in his promise to make Nigeria safer.
The election was a tight race for the first time since Nigeria ended military rule in 1999, after a third challenger Labour Party's Obi, 61, drew younger voters with his message of change from his two old guard rivals.
Obi, a former Anambra State governor, created surpris by winning Lagos, the state with the largest number of registered voters and the traditional bastion of Tinubu.
PDP's Abubakar, a 76-year-old businessman and former vice president, lost his sixth attempt at the presidency.
Saturday's voting was mostly peaceful, but was troubled by long delays at many polling stations and some intimidation by thugs, while technical hitches disrupted the uploading of results to INEC's central website, fuelling concerns over vote rigging.
"The election is irretrievably compromised," Labour Party chairman Julius Abure told reporters on Tuesday. "We demand that this sham of an election should be immediately cancelled."
INEC introduced biometric voter identification technology for the first time at the national level and its IReV central database for uploading results to improve transparency.
But opposition parties said failures in the system to upload tallies allowed for ballot manipulation and disparities in the results from the manual counts at local polling stations.
Lack of transparency
But INEC dismissed opposition allegations.
"Contrary to the insinuation by both parties, results emanating from the States point to a free, fair and credible process," the INEC said.
It said parties should allow the process to run its course and then take their claims to court.
But international observers, including from the European Union, noted major logistical problems, disenfranchised voters and a lack of transparency by INEC.
Nigerians are hoping the new leader will be capable of tackling the country's widening insecurity, economic malaise and growing poverty.
An Islamist insurgency in the northeast has displaced more than two million, bandit militias carry out mass abductions in the northwest and separatists attack police in the southeast.
Nigeria is Africa's top oil producer but struggles with sporadic fuel shortages, huge energy import bills due a lack of refineries and crude theft from its wells and pipelines.
(with newswires)
