A ruling by Nigeria’s Supreme Court on Monday raised uncertainty over controversial state elections last weekend and opened the way for a late presidential bid by Vice President Atiku Abubakar.
As protests mounted over widespread abuses in the governorship elections, the court ruled that the official electoral body had not had the power to disqualify candidates, including Abubakar.
The ruling affected not only Abubakar’s candidacy in next Saturday’s presidential poll, but at least six states where governorship candidates were disqualified in the state election.
There was no immediate comment from the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) and it was not clear if the ruling would force the annulment of some polls.
“Governorship elections where any candidates were disqualified by INEC are null and void,” said Lai Mohammed, spokesman for Abubakar’s Action Congress party.
President Olusegun Obasanjo has tried every possible maneuver to block Abubakar, with whom he has engaged in a bitter public feud.
The way now appears open for the vice president to stand against Umaru Yar’Adua of Obasanjo’s People’s Democratic Party. Opposition parties were due to meet on Tuesday to discuss joining forces under a single candidate.
Until now the strongest opposition challenge was expected to come from former army strongman Muhammadu Buhari of the All Nigeria People’s Party.
Results on Monday from the state elections showed the PDP headed for a landslide victory but the opposition denounced vote rigging and said the poll was fraudulent.
INEC said the PDP had won 26 of 32 states for which results were announced after elections marred by widespread abuses and violence that killed around 50 people.
The governorship elections in 36 states set the stage for the presidential poll next weekend and were seen as a strong indicator of both the conduct and result of that vote.
“SHAM”
“We reject the entire election as a sham,” said Action Congress’s Mohammed.
Members of local and international observer missions said elections in four to six states were so compromised they should be rerun. INEC said it had cancelled results from two states, Imo and Enugu, and they would be rerun within weeks.
The announcement of results was greeted by violence on Sunday and Monday, with youths burning electoral and local government offices in the northern Kaduna and Katsina states, the state-run news agency said.
Opposition supporters blocked roads to protest against a PDP victory in the central Kogi and southern Edo and Ondo states, local media reported.
In Ondo, women stripped to the waist in the streets, in a traditional protest to shame authorities, local television said.
Police in the northern opposition stronghold of Kano imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew before the results were even announced.
Africa’s most populous nation and top oil producer returned to democracy in 1999 after decades of army rule and these elections should lead to the first handover from one elected president to another since independence in 1960.
Saturday’s vote was marred by a multitude of rigging techniques, including the abduction of electoral officers and falsification of results, international observers said.
“In several key states, the election has no credibility,” said Chris Albin-Lackey of Human Rights Watch.