Nigeria election 2015: Muhammadu Buhari declares victory

Former army coup chief Muhammadu Buhari declared victory in Nigeria’s presidential election Tuesday, as the last votes being counted from the weekend’s vote gave incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan little threat of securing a 2nd time period in place of job. The country was “witnessing historical past,” the onetime army general informed supporters.

The apparent victory by using Mr. Buhari, a Muslim from the nation’s north, over Mr. Goodluck, a Christian with a political base in the south, came amid complaints of vote casting irregularities from U.S. And British officials.

Nigeria’s Electoral fee continues to be tallying votes, however with simply one in every of 36 states left to declare, Mr. Buhari’s All Progressives Congress had 15.1 million votes to 11.7 million for Mr. Jonathan and the ruling persons’s Democratic social gathering, in step with a Reuters tally. The PDP has dominated Nigerian politics for close to two many years.

“that is the first time in Nigeria that a sitting government will probably be voted out of vigour utilizing purely democratic method,” APC spokesman Lai Mohammed told Reuters at the condominium in the capital the place Mr. Buhari used to be staring at the outcome are available. “The folks of Nigeria have taken over.”

regardless of the U.S. And British criticisms, Nigerian officers say Sunday’s vote went quite smoothly in Africa’s most populous nation. Mr. Goodluck’s victory within the 2011 vote was once marred with the aid of publish-election violence that left about 800 useless.

Mr. Buhari in brief ruled Nigerian following a military coup within the mid-1980s, however has said he has for the reason that turn out to be a convert to democracy. In a nation just about evenly cut up between Christians and Muslims, he ran up large majorities in the Muslim north that Mr. Goodluck could now not overcome.

The Islamic insurgent staff Boko Haram launched lethal assaults on voters within the combat stricken northeast area of the country on Saturday. The assaults left 41 people useless, together with a legislator, however despite the violence U.N. Officers said the elections had been mostly unaffected.