Bola Tinubu declared Nigeria president: electoral commission

Bola Tinubu from Nigeria's ruling party has won the country's presidential election, the electoral authority said in the early hours of Wednesday morning.The election was held over the weekend and the results have been disputed by the two main opposition candidates.

Tinubu is from the All Progressives Congress — the party of outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari — and won with 8.8 million votes, according to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Meanwhile, the INEC said Peoples Democratic Party candidate Atiku Abubakar came second with 6.9 million votes.Labour Party candidate Peter Obi, who scored a major upset in Tinubu's home state of Lagos, came third with 6.1 million votes.

According to Nigerian electoral law, the candidate with the most votes can automatically be declared the winner if they also receive 25% of the vote in at least two-thirds of the 36 states and the federal capital Abuja, which Tinubu managed to achieve.

"Tinubu, Bola Ahmed, of the APC, having satisfied the requirements of the law, is hereby declared the winner and is returned elected," INEC chairman Mahmood Yakubu said on Wednesday morning.

Voting delays criticized

Voting in Africa's largest democracy was largely peaceful but plagued by long delays at many polling stations, which contributed to the slow release of results over several days.

International observers, including from the EU, noted major logistical problems and a lack of transparency from the INEC.The parties of Abubakar and Obi alleged that vote count was compromised and have called for fresh elections.

"The results being declared at the National Collation Center have been heavily doctored and manipulated and do not reflect the wishes of Nigerians expressed at the polls," they said in a joint statement. 

But Nigeria's electoral commission dismissed these claims."Contrary to the insinuation by both parties, results emanating from the states point to a free, fair and credible process," the INEC said.

Who is Bola Tinubu?

Tinubu was the governor of Lagos State from 1999 until 2007.Since then, he has picked every subsequent winning candidate to run the tiny state that is home to one of Africa's biggest cities, earning him a reputation as a political "godfather."

The biography on his campaign website says he was born in Lagos in 1952 to a Muslim Yoruba family.In the 1970s, he studied in the United States while working as a dishwasher, taxi driver and night guard.After that, he returned to Nigeria to work in the oil industry.

Tinubu has at times appeared frail and with slurred speech on the campaign trail, but he has repeatedly dismissed any concerns about his health. (AFP, Reuters)