Elections in Nigeria: the United States recognizes the victory of Bola Tinubu and the European Union calls on the opposition to avoid violence

The United States recognized the victory on Wednesday Ahmed Tinubu ball in the hotly contested presidential elections Nigeria and urged the opposition to channel their complaints of fraud through legal channels without resorting to violence.

“The United States congratulates the President-elect of Nigeria on the results of the February 25 presidential election.. These competitive elections represent a new era for Nigerian politics and democracy,” US State Department spokesman Ned Price said at a press conference.

In turn, Price called on opposition candidates and supporters not to “resorting to violence or inflammatory rhetoric at this critical timeand instead encouraged anyone “who wishes to challenge the result” to use the existing mechanisms “for the resolution of electoral disputes”.

The official said he understood the “frustration of Nigerians and some parties with the way the process unfolded” and some technical issues on election day.

For this reason, he assured that the United States would join other international observers in “improve areas that need more attention ahead of the March 11 gubernatorial elections”.

The Foreign Affairs spokesperson urged government security forces, political actors and all citizens to respect “the fundamental role of the media”, after the numerous attacks against journalists during the elections, such as “guarantee accountability” for any wrongful act against them.

The European Union reiterated this Wednesday the call for calm in Nigeria after declaring the Independent National Electoral Commission of Nigeria (INEC) Bola Tinubu victorythe government candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

“The main opposition parties have said they are considering challenging the results. While we acknowledge the operational failures, we call on all parties to continue to uphold their commitments to a peaceful process following the announcement of the results,” a community spokesperson said. European press.

Faced with the demand of the main opposition parties in Nigeria to repeat the elections and to depose the president of the CENI, European diplomacy underlined that “Any dispute must be resolved through established legal channels”without entering into the evaluation of the demand for these training courses.

In any event, the EU maintains its mission on the ground, which continues its election observation work once the results have been announced. “We recognize the strong participation of civil society in the process,” the spokesperson said, while explaining that the observers are carrying out a rapid recount process, “an important measure to guarantee the integrity of the election result”.

Tinubu thanked the people after their victory and said that the people went to the polls to “vote for a better and more hopeful nation”. “Thank you for your participation and dedication to our democracy,” he said.

The president-elect applauded the electoral commission for “conducting free and fair elections” and stressed that “the shortcomings that took place were relatively few and did not affect the final results”.

However, in its preliminary report, the European Election Observation Mission has already pointed out lack of transparency in elections and pointed directly to the role of the CNEI. Specifically, the document highlights the lack of security at polling stations, as well as the shortage of new naira notes and fuel on polling day.

There HIM He had asked on Tuesday to remain calm as the electoral process in Nigeria was coming to an end and, in particular, to avoid “behaviours such as hate speech, misinformation or incitement to violence” from the actors involved. .

Tinubu, 70, won 36% of the vote (8.79 million votes), according to the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmud Yakubu, who said on Wednesday.

In a statement by the Secretary-General’s Spokesperson, the UN said that at this time, one should refrain “from any behavior that could undermine the electoral process, and ultimately peace and stability in Nigeria. “.

Atiku Abubakar, candidate of the main opposition force, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), came second with 29% of the vote (6.98 million). Third place is occupied by Peter Obi (61), of the Labor Party (LP), who won 25% of the vote (6.1 million).

almost 93.5 million registered voters, only 24.96 million Nigerians voted on a day without serious incidents but marked by delays in the opening of many polling stations, according to INEC figures.

(With information from EFE and Europa Press)

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