Nigeria’s Presidential Election Results Awaited as Vote Counting Begins.

Nigeria, one of the largest democracies in Africa is currently awaiting the results of its presidential election as the counting process has officially begun.

The election, which took place on February 23^rd, 2023, saw over 84 million registered voters cast their ballot to determine who will lead the country for the next four years.

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The stakes are high, as Nigeria faces a number of critical challenges including security concerns, economic instability and political unrest.

The election pits former Lagos governor Bola Tinubu, 70, of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) against an old rival, former vice president Atiku Abubakar, of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), 76.

But for the first time since the end of military rule in 1999, a third-party candidate, Peter Obi of the Labour Party, has challenged the APC and PDP dominance with a campaign message of change.

Spread over more than 176,000 polling units, voters also cast their ballot for Nigeria's two houses of parliament, the National Assembly and Senate.

At a press briefing on Saturday, the electoral chief, Mahmood Yakubu, apologised for the delays in voting, but he said that everyone who was in a queue by 14:30 local time (13:30 GMT) would be allowed to cast their ballots, even though polling stations were officially supposed to close by then.

Voters in the biggest city, Lagos, cheered as electoral officers arrived at a polling station in the suburb of Lekki nearly four hours after polls had officially closed.

“As a Nigerian you expect any eventuality, so I came out with my power bank and a bottle of water. I will wait till they arrive so I can vote,” first-time voter Edith told the BBC.

In Lagos and other cities, crowds stormed polling stations late on Saturday as electoral officials tallied the first results by hand and read out the counts before transmitting them to a central database.

"We just finished counting, but we need to make sure they upload the results," said Chizoba Onuoha, an IT manager, watching the count at her Lagos polling station.

In the southern oil hub of Port Harcourt, a dozen people were still at their polling unit after the counting had finished on Saturday, shouting at the electoral official to destroy unused ballots.

  "The empty ballots, we want them to void them, so that they don't use them!" said Nkechi Njoku, 42, who sells fabric and said she had not left since arriving to vote in the morning.

"We are protecting our votes," said Robert Ihuoma, a 38-year-old data analyst standing next to her.

Votes were cast in Benue, Adamawa and Bayelsa states even as the counting of ballots was underway Sunday in places where polls had closed, election observers said. Preliminary results were expected as early as Sunday evening.

As of Sunday morning, results for the presidential election were not yet available on the website of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The historically tight presidential election has some analysts forecasting an unprecedented runoff between the two frontrunners.

The competitive race has some analysts forecasting an unprecedented runoff between the two frontrunners if no candidate meets election requirements. It would have to be organized within 21 days.

The commission has 14 days to officially announce results, but an online tally could be made available in the next hours or days.

To win the presidency, a candidate must get the most votes but also win 25 percent in two-thirds of Nigeria's 36 states.

With tensions running high and the world watching, all eyes are now on the electoral commission as they work to tally the votes and announce the winner of this closely contested race.