Nigeria’s Buhari extends lead in election count as death toll mounts
Provisional results not yet confirmed by the election commission show the president on course to cement a lead over former vice-president Atiku Abubakar
Abuja — Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari extended his early election lead on Tuesday based on official results from a third of the country’s districts as the death toll from sporadic election violence rose to 47. Provisional results announced in state capitals but not yet confirmed by the election commission showed Buhari on course to cementing a commanding lead over his main rival, businessman and former vice-president Atiku Abubakar. Atiku’s party has rejected the tallies thus far as “incorrect and unacceptable”. Buhari’s party said the opposition was trying to discredit the returns from Saturday’s vote. The outcome is expected later this week. At stake is control of Africa’s top oil producer and biggest economy with a decade-old Islamist insurgency entrenched in the northeast and overlapping into neighbouring countries.
The winner is likely to be the man voters trust most to revamp an economy struggling to emerge from a 2016 recession. Analysts had predicted the vote to ...
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