Updated by Faith Barbara Namagembe at 1714 EAT on Wednesday 1 March 2023.

Provisional results from Nigeria’s disputed presidential election over the weekend showed Bola Tinubu from the ruling party in the lead, a Reuters tally of votes in 25 of the country’s 36 states showed on Tuesday.

Electoral commission results from the states showed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress party (APC) was ahead with about 36 per cent or 7 million of valid votes counted, with Atiku Abubakar of the main opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) trailing close behind with 30 per cent or nearly 6 million valid votes.

Peter Obi of the smaller Labour Party got 20 per cent or about 3.8 million votes. More results were expected to show the winner later on Tuesday.

The preliminary results were announced in the states by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) officers and will still have to be presented at the commission’s national collation centre in the federal capital Abuja.

But opposition parties have rejected the results as the product of a flawed process, which suffered multiple technical difficulties owing to the introduction of new technology by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

INEC had promised to upload results directly from each polling unit to its website in the election to replace outgoing President Muhammadu Buhari, but most were unable to do so immediately.

That meant results had to be collated manually inside ward and local government counting centers as in previous polls, problems observer missions also criticized as the result of poor planning.

There are fears frustrations over the process could boil over into violence. In a normally bustling market on Lagos island, one of the most densely populated places in Africa, shops were shut and streets deserted on Tuesday morning.