The 2019 presidential election returned President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for a second term. He beat former vice-president Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) by almost four million votes. The election is also remembered for two things: a postponement announced in the early hours of election day, and the lowest turnout of any presidential election since 1999.
The campaign
Buhari ran on his record against corruption and his government’s spending on roads, railways and social programmes. Atiku, a businessman who had served as vice-president from 1999 to 2007, promised to restructure the federation and revive an economy that had fallen into recession in 2016. Both candidates were northern Muslims in their seventies, which shaped both campaigns’ choice of running mates and regional messages.
More than 70 candidates appeared on the ballot, but the contest was effectively a two-horse race.
Postponed at 3am
Shortly before 3am on 16 February 2019, with millions of voters preparing to go to polling units, INEC chairman Mahmood Yakubu announced that the presidential and National Assembly elections would move to 23 February. He cited difficulties getting materials to polling units across the country. Some materials had been destroyed in fires at INEC offices in Abia, Anambra and Plateau states in the days before.
The decision angered voters, many of whom had travelled to their home states to vote, and both main parties accused each other of benefiting. The governorship and state assembly elections moved from 2 March to 9 March.
The result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Muhammadu Buhari | APC | 15,191,847 | 55.60% |
| Atiku Abubakar | PDP | 11,262,978 | 41.22% |
Buhari won 19 states, mostly in the North-West, the North-East and the South-West. Atiku won 17 states, mainly in the South-East, the South-South and parts of the North-Central, as well as the Federal Capital Territory.
Of 82.3 million registered voters, only 34.75% voted. Analysts linked the low turnout to the postponement, insecurity, apathy and the cost of travelling back to vote a second time.
Violence and irregularities
Election day was largely calm in most of the country, but there was serious violence in some places. Observers recorded dozens of deaths across the election period, with Rivers, Lagos, Kogi and other states among the worst affected. In Okota, Lagos, thugs disrupted voting and burned ballot materials. The governorship elections on 9 March were marked by violence and military interference in Rivers State, where INEC briefly suspended collation, and by an inconclusive result in Kano State that required a rerun.
The court case
Atiku went to court, arguing that he had won according to results he said had been transmitted to an INEC server, and that Buhari was not qualified because he could not produce his school certificate. The Presidential Election Petition Tribunal dismissed the petition in September 2019, finding no evidence that INEC used an electronic server for collation at that election. The Supreme Court dismissed Atiku’s appeal on 30 October 2019.
The “server” argument helped drive the push for electronic transmission of results, later written into the Electoral Act 2022 and used in the 2023 elections through the IReV portal.
