Protesters İn Nigeria's Rivers Claim Vote İrregularities

Massive protest erupted in Nigeria's south south River State on Sunday as hundreds of youths belonging to the opposition All Progressive Congress (APC) besiege regional office of the electoral commission demanding cancelation of Saturday's election results.



"We are protesting because what happened yesterday cannot be said to be an election," Fyneface Abuah, one of the protesters, told The Anadolu Agency.



"Election did not take place and result is about to be released," he suggested.



Abuah claimed that in APC stronghold the result sheets were not supplied to polling units or fake sheets were supplied and later changed.



Another protester, Priscilla Boyloaf, said they would continue to protest until this election is canceled.



"You cannot write election results where no voting took place," Boyloaf told AA. "That is what happened in Opobo and other major strongholds of our party."



Dakuku Peterside, governorship candidate of the APC in the state, called for the sacking of the electoral commissioner in the state who they accused of colliding with the ruling party to manipulate the poll.



Kayode Idowu, a spokesman for the Independent National Electoral Commission, could not be immediately reached to comment on the claims.



Tension is mounting in other parts of Nigeria too as both parties trade blame over allegations of manipulations.



Millions of Nigerians went to the polls Saturday to elect a new president, 360 House of Representatives members and 109 senators.



The presidential race is largely between Jonathan of the People's Democratic Party (PDP), which has ruled the country since 1999, and Muhammadu Buhari, a former military ruler who is running on the ticket of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC), an amalgam of political interests.



The winner of the presidential race must clinch more than 50 percent of all valid votes plus a mandatory 25 percent in two-thirds of the country's 36 states.



If no candidate is able to win outright, the two frontrunners will compete for a simple majority in a runoff vote.



Aggrieved parties have 30 days from the election to legally challenge final poll results.



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