Buhari's APC wins landslide victory in Nigeria state elections

Nigeria's opposition All Progressive's Congress has won a landslide victory in state governorship elections, reinforcing the party's mandate for reform two weeks after former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari made history by unseating the incumbent president.

The president-elect's APC seized eight governorships from the outgoing ruling People's Democratic Party, giving it control of 20 of the 36 states in the federation. There was one result still pending on Monday and another where the outcome was inconclusive because of spoilt ballots. The party has also won majorities in the Senate and House of Assembly.

The results of Saturday's elections, which were largely peaceful but marred by violence and widespread fraud in parts of the oil producing Niger delta, complete the routing of the PDP, which has dominated Nigerian politics since the military handed power back to civilians in 1999.

Nigerians, who were able to vote more transparently than in past elections as a result of new biometric voter cards and card readers, were frustrated with the levels of corruption tolerated by the outgoing administration of Goodluck Jonathan, who was also blamed for allowing an Islamist insurgency in the north to rage out of control.

But the outcome of the polls also underscores ethnic and regional splits within Africa's most populous nation which Gen Buhari, who is due to be sworn in on May 29, will need to handle with care.

His APC swept the predominately Muslim north, the centre and Yoruba-speaking southwest of the country. The PDP meanwhile has been reduced to a regional block in the southeast and southern oil producing states - roughly the region that attempted to break away during the Biafran civil war in the 1960s.

"The president has lost the election and the country has become very divided. How they will bring the country back together is a problem, because it has gone back to regional lines," a PDP chieftain in Rivers state told the Financial Times.

Rivers was the state worst affected by violence and fraud at the weekend as party thugs stole results sheets and card readers were dispensed with, while in some areas there were strong indications of ballot stuffing.

One election monitoring group described the numbers there as a mix of reality and fiction. Despite evidence of low turnouts, some local government areas were returning results with voter participation as high as 94 per cent.

"Rivers provides a cautionary tale from the 2015 elections that should shape the debate about what to do in terms of reforms before the next vote," said a member of one group monitoring the state, who requested anonymity because of the continuing tensions in the area.

The US embassy congratulated Nigeria for an electoral process it said "generally went well across the country".

"We have seen the reports of violence and alleged irregularities . . . and call on those dissatisfied to pursue their grievances peacefully in the judicial arena," it added.

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