Buhari re-elected as Nigeria's president

By Rafiu Ajakaye

LAGOS, Nigeria (AA) - Nigeria's incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari has won the country's keenly contested presidential elections held Saturday, garnering 15,191,847 votes to edge past his closest rival, who received 11,262,978 votes.

Buhari, 76, won majority votes in 19 of the country's 36 states and gathered the constitutional minimum of 25 percent of the votes in at least 34 states and the federal capital Abuja.

“Muhammadu Buhari, having scored the highest number of votes and satisfied the requirements of the law, is here declared the winner and returned as elected,” Mahmud Yakubu, head of the electoral commission, said in the early hours of Wednesday.

Yakubu said a certificate of return will be issued to Buhari and his deputy at 2 p.m. local time.

Buhari ran against the main opposition People's Democratic Party’s candidate Atiku Abubakar, a former vice president and multibillionaire businessman.

The president will be sworn in on May 29, 2019.

The opposition alleged widespread irregularities in the ballot, although most observer groups said the exercise was largely transparent despite some hitches and pockets of violence in a few states which claimed over 16 lives.