#ElectionDay: Nigerians march to polls to elect president, NASS members

election voting INEC

Polling units are expected to open at 8a.m. on Saturday as Nigerians brace up to elect their president and 469 members of the National Assembly (NASS).

This comes one week after the electoral body, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) postponed the elections from February 16 to February 23.

The election will hold at 119,973 polling units across the country, while collation of results will take place in 8,809 Registration Areas or Wards, 774 Local Government Areas, 36 States and the FCT.

President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Demographic Party (PDP) are the leading contenders for the presidency.

Other prominent names include Prof. Kingsley Moghalu of the Young Progressives Party (YPP) and Omoyele Sowore of the African Action Congress (AAC).

A total of 1,904 are vying for 109 Senatorial seats, while 4,680 candidates are competing for the 360 seats in the House of Representatives.

The total number of registered voters in the country is 84,004,084, with 44,405,439 (52.86 per cent) as male, and 39,598,645 (47.14 per cent) as female.

Of the 84,004,084 registered voters nationwide, 72,775,502, representing 86.63 per cent who have collected Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) are eligible to participate in the elections, as 11,228,582 or 13. 7 per cent of the printed PVCs are yet to be uncollected.