APC primary

The APC primary election was held on September 30, 2018.^{[11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33]} Mai Mala Buni won the primary election polling 2,797 votes against 3 other candidates.^{[34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62]} His closest rival was Sidi Karasuwa, who came second with 23 votes, Umar Ali came third with 8 votes, while Aji Kolo had 4 votes.^{[63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72][73][74][75][76][77][78][79][80][81][82][83][84][85][86][87][88][89][90][91][92][93]}

Candidates

• Party nominee: Mai Mala Buni
• Running mate: Idi Barde Gubana
• Sidi Karasuwa
• Aji Kolo

PDP primary

The PDP primary election was held on September 30, 2018.^{[94][95][96][97][98][99][100][101][102]} Umar Iliya Damagum emerged as the consensus candidate after his closest rival was Umar Elgash Maina withdrew.^{[103][104][105][106][107][108][109][110]}

Candidates

• Party nominee: Umar Iliya Damagum
• Running mate: Baba Abba Aji
• Umar Elgash Maina- Withdrew

By local government area

Here are the results of the election by local government area for the two major parties. The total valid votes of 546,391 represents the 13 political parties that participated in the election. Blue represents LGAs won by Mai Mala Buni. Green represents LGAs won by Umar Iliya Damagum.