Nigeria sets February date for presidential elections

Nigeria on Friday said it will hold its presidential election on February 20 next year and announced a staggered timetable for legislative elections in Africa's most populous country.

Election commission chief Joash Ojo Amupitan made the announcement and called the upcoming election a "significant milestone in our democratic journey".

Elections to pick state governors will be held on March 6, 2027, he said.

Earlier this week, the upper house of the Nigerian parliament adopted - after pressure and protests - an amendment allowing live publication of election results, after initially rejecting it.

Over the past decade, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has introduced technology designed to improve the integrity of election results.

Public trust

But this has had little success in boosting confidence in the results, and post-election litigations are commonplace.

Experts say public trust in the election process would improve if the country's 176,000 polling units were forced to publish their results instantaneously on a centralised public website.

President Bola Tinubu was elected in February 2023 in the first round with around 36 percent of the vote, defeating Atiku Abubakar, a former vice president, and Peter Obi.

Obi has already declared that he will run again in the 2027 election.

To be elected in the first round, a candidate must win at least 25 percent of the vote in more than two-thirds of the country's 36 states plus the Federal Capital Territory.