Ballot papers were stolen and voters intimidated when Nigeria re-staged polls for hundreds of state and federal legislators’ seats on Saturday after elections widely condemned as fraudulent.
The April 14 and 21 polls delivered a landslide victory for the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), which has ruled Africa’s most populous nation and biggest oil exporter for eight years.
But international observers said the elections were not credible and the opposition has rejected the results.
The electoral body had rescheduled elections for some seats in 26 of the 36 states, in places where the earlier polls were cancelled due to massive irregularities. In one state, southeastern Imo, the election for governor was rescheduled.
The elections were supposed to be a landmark democratic transition in Nigeria, a nation scarred by three decades of army rule. For the first time, one civilian president is due to hand over to another through the ballot box.
But European observers said vote-rigging was so widespread that the elections were “not credible” and “fell far short of basic international standards”. The main organization of Nigerian observers called the polls “a charade”.
The PDP’s Umaru Yar’Adua, the president-elect, has insisted he won fair and square and advised aggrieved candidates to seek redress through the courts. But analysts in Nigeria and abroad say Yar’Adua will face a serious legitimacy problem.�Reuters