AFRIPOL.ORG IDEAS HAVE CONSEQUENCES
By Robyn Dixon (Times Staff Writer)
Umaru Yar Adua is expected to be announced the winner. Some call for new balloting.
The
ruling party's hopes that a weekend election in Nigeria would be accepted as
credible were dampened today when local observers and the main opposition
parties condemned what they said was vote-rigging and called for a repeat of
the balloting.The German presidency of the European Union issued a statement
raising doubts about whether Saturday's presidential and parliamentary
elections were free and fair after EU observers expressed concern over
irregularities.
One of the main presidential contenders, Vice President Alhaji Atiku
Abubakar, said the balloting was a sham and called for the results to be
quashed.
The elections were seen as a key test of Nigeria's development as a
democracy, the first transfer from one civilian administration to another in
a country ruled predominantly by the military since independence in 1960.
The poll was flawed by logistical problems, voting delays and violence in
some areas and followed state elections a week earlier that brought a hail
of criticism from international and local observers.
The results of Saturday's polling are due Monday, with fears of possible
clashes once the results are known.
Umaru Yar Adua, presidential candidate for the ruling People's Democratic
Party, is widely expected to be announced as the winner Monday, given
preliminary results released Sunday and the party's strong showing in the
state elections.
The Transition Monitoring Group, a Nigerian group with 50,000 poll watchers,
said it would call for new balloting.
"We are going to call for a rerun of the elections. You cannot use the
results from half the country to announce a new president," TMG Chairman
Innocent Chukwuma told Reuters.
Abubakar, running for the Action Congress Party, and President Olusegun
Obasanjo were former allies who had a falling-out when the vice president
opposed Obasanjo's unsuccessful attempt to change the nation's constitution
in a bid for a third term in office.
"I have already rejected the elections," Abubakar told reporters in Abuja.
"They have no alternative other than to cancel them altogether."
robyn.dixon@latimes.com