2019 Nigerian General Election Saturday Feb 23,2019

Nigerians are heading to the polls in one of the most closely contested presidential and legislative elections in the country's political history, after a week-long delay over security fears.

About 120,000 polling stations opened at 07:00 GMT across Africa's most populous nation and leading oil producer, with results expected early next week.

The elections on Saturday marked the end of a bitter campaign between two frontrunners: incumbent 

President Muhammadu Buhari(76) of the ruling All Progressives Congress, and opposition candidate Atiku Abubakar(72)and former vice president of the People's Democratic Party.

The two leading candidates are Fulani Muslims from northern Nigeria, unlike in 2015, when religion and region played major roles in determining the outcome of the election

More than 84 million Nigerians have registered to take part in the crunch vote, and long queues were reported at several polling stations across the country early on Saturday Feb 23,2019

Seventy-three candidates are running for the presidency - the highest number of presidential hopefuls in the country of nearly 200 million people.

Electors are also choosing 360 members of the House of Representatives and 109 senators from a choice of 6,500 candidates.

Nigeria, Africa's biggest economy, has one of the fastest-growing populations in the world, and one of the largest youth populations. Despite the economic progress, 91 million Nigerians are living in extreme poverty.