• Candidate Bola Tinubu has won a comfortable victory in one of his strongholds.
• Additional findings will not be made public until Monday.
• A candidate must receive the most votes and have 25% of the ballots cast in two-thirds of Nigeria’s 36 states.

Early results from Nigeria‘s tightest election since the end of military rule in 1999 have begun to trickle in.

Official results from south-western Ekiti state suggest that governing party candidate Bola Tinubu has won a comfortable victory in one of his strongholds.

Additional findings will not be made public until Monday at 10:00 a.m. GMT.

Following major delays and attacks on polling places on Saturday, voting in various areas of the country was postponed until Sunday.

In other regions, voting went into the night.

Turnout appears to be strong, particularly among young people, who account for around one-third of the 87 million eligible voters.

This makes it Africa’s largest democratic exercise.

The election has seen an unprecedented challenge to the two-party system that has dominated Nigeria for 24 years.

Mr. Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Peter Obi of the previously unknown Labour Party, and Atiku Abubakar of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are all viewed as probable winners. There are 15 additional candidates for president.

To be considered the winner, a candidate must receive the most votes and have 25% of the ballots cast in two-thirds of Nigeria’s 36 states.

Otherwise, a run-off election will be held within 21 days, a first in Nigerian history.

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