EU observers Monday challenged the credibility of Nigeria’s elections, as early results showed ruling party candidate Umar Yar’Adua leading his presidential rivals after polls that left 200 dead.
Amid mounting opposition calls for the cancellation of state, parliamentary and presidential elections held April 14 and 21, chief EU observer Max van den Berg said the polls had “fallen far short” of basic international standards.
“The elections have not lived up to the hopes and expectations of the Nigerian people, for the process cannot be considered to be credible,” he said.
Van den Berg’s team said at least 200 people were killed in “unacceptable” election-related violence during the two polls, with victims including police and some candidates.
“The continuing and widespread use of thugs by a number of political parties created a significant degree of fear and intimidation,” the team said in its report.
Official election results were expected to be announced later Monday, with early returns showing Yar’Adua leading his two main rivals in most southern states and in parts of the northwest and central north.
The mild-mannered 55-year-old who is governor of one of the country’s northern states is backed by President Olusegun Obasanjo and was the pre-poll favourite.
The main opposition candidates, Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Obasanjo’s former friend-turned-foe, and onetime military ruler Muhammadu Buhari, both criticised the poll as unfair and undemocratic.
“I have already rejected the elections,” said Abubakar, demanding a re-run. “They have no alternative other than to cancel them altogether.”
“What we have seen clearly proves our fears that it is the worst election ever seen,” Abubakar added.
His verdict was backed up by Nigeria’s largest election monitoring group which slammed the government’s handling of Saturday’s ballot.
“The election was a charade,” Innocent Chukwuma, head of the transition monitoring group told reporters.
“We therefore reject it and call for its cancellation,” Chukwuma said, demanding a re-run within three months.
Turnout appeared low for Saturday’s presidential and legislative elections after ballot papers printed at the last minute arrived hours late, or not at all, in many of the 120,000 voting stations of Africa’s most populous nation.
A US observer team, the International Republican Institute, noted numerous incidents of under-age voting, stuffed ballot boxes and voter registration problems.
The presidential election had been touted as a democratic showcase marking the African giant’s first peaceful handover of power from one civilian to another since independence in 1960.
And with all eyes on the future stability of the world’s sixth largest oil exporter, national electoral commission chief Maurice Iwu insisted Sunday that the polls were successful, free and fair.
To win the presidential election, a candidate must have the highest number of votes overall and a majority in at least 24 out of the nation’s 36 states.
Saturday’s ballot-box confusion was partly caused by an 11th-hour Supreme Court decision only last week to allow Abubakar, who is facing corruption allegations, to run in the election, overruling his disqualification by the election commission.
That left the commission with the mammoth task of reprinting ballots overseas for 61.5 million eligible voters and getting them to booths in time for a 0900 GMT start.