Bola Tinubu, the candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress party (APC), appears to be in the lead in Nigeria's presidential election, according to partial and provisional results announced on Tuesday.
A Reuters tally of votes from 25 of Nigeria's 36 states showed Tinubu with about 36% or 7 million of the valid votes counted, followed closely by Atiku Abubakar of the main opposition People's Democratic Party (PDP) with 30% or nearly 6 million valid votes.
Peter Obi of the smaller Labour Party received 20% or about 3.8 million votes.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) officers announced the preliminary results in the states, but they will still need to be presented at the commission's national collation centre in Abuja.
However, opposition parties have rejected the results, citing the flawed process that suffered multiple technical difficulties due to the introduction of new technology by INEC.
The electoral commission had promised to upload results directly from each polling unit to its website in this election, but most were unable to do so immediately, resulting in the manual collation of results at ward and local government counting centres.
Observers have criticized these problems as the result of poor planning. There are concerns that frustrations over the process could escalate into violence.
In Lagos, one of Africa's most densely populated areas, a normally busy market was shut down and streets were deserted on Tuesday morning.
Reporting by Tim Cocks Additional reporting by Hamza Ibrahim in Kano, Ahmed Kingimi in Maiduguri, Anamesere Igboeroteonwu in Onitsha and James Oatway in Lagos; Editing by MacDonald Dzirutwe and Emelia Sithole-Matarise