56m Nigerians to choose between Jonathan, Buhari

Buhari(Left) and Jonathan(Right)

No fewer than 56 million Nigerians will file out today to elect the next president in an election believed to be the keenest in the history of the country. The figure represents 81.9 per cent of the total number of 70,383,427 voters that registered for the election.

The ruling Peoples Democratic Party presidential candidate, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan and the opposition All Progressives Congress candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd) are once again asking for Nigerians’ votes in this year’s general elections to enable them to lead the country.

The two political gladiators contested in the 2011 general elections won by Jonathan. But this year’s election has generated much tension across the country following the near equal strength of the two major presidential candidates in the poll.

INEC, in its bid to ensure credible conduct of the elections, introduced a lot of innovations, including the PVCs and the smart card readers to prevent rigging.

The electoral body also increased existing polling units by 30,000. By this addition, the total number of polling units across the country’s 774 local government areas is now 150,000 from the initial 119,973.

As Nigerians elect the new president today, however, the electoral body has put the current total number of registered voters at 70,383,427 of which Lagos State with 5,426,391 has the highest number of registered voters. Nigeria’s commercial capital is followed by Kano with the second highest number of registered voters of 4,751,818.

Meanwhile, INEC has warned the electorate to shun activities that could trigger off breakdown of law and order as they vote for the candidates of their choice.

...Punch