Nigeria’s opposition charged on Friday that rigging had already begun on the eve of a keenly-watched presidential election, but the authorities denied reports of doctored ballots.
The opposition said troops in the northern city of Kaduna had intercepted a truck of ballots in favour of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) 24 hours before the poll, seen as a watershed for both Nigeria and Africa.
In nearby Katsina, opposition parties accused the PDP of marking ballots after taking them to private houses, and of masterminding the arrest of hundreds of opposition sympathisers.
Regional polls last weekend, which gave the PDP a landslide, were marred by widespread abuses.
“Soldiers in Kaduna have intercepted a truck-load of ballot papers, all already thumb-printed for the PDP ahead of Saturday’s elections,” said Lai Mohammed, spokesman for the Action Congress (AC) party. He said the ballots had been taken to a barracks in Kaduna city.
The electoral commission said in the morning that ballot-tampering could not have occurred because new voting slips were still arriving from abroad after a last-minute change, and had not yet been distributed.
Electoral commissioner Maurice Iwu announced a two-hour delay to 0900 GMT in the start of Saturday’s voting, to give more time for ballots to reach the far corners of the vast, chaotic nation, which is Africa’s top oil producer.
The election is intended to mark a big step forward for democracy in Africa’s most populous country, ushering in the first handover from one elected president to another in a country scarred by three decades of army rule.
But observers witnessed every form of rigging at last Saturday’s regional election, and said many of the results did not reflect the will of the people.
SUPREME COURT
A last-minute Supreme Court ruling on Monday has deepened confusion over the election.
The court ruled the election commission acted illegally in disqualifying Atiku Abubakar, President Olusegun Obasanjo’s estranged deputy and AC candidate. He was then reinstated. Iwu said 65 million new ballots had been printed to include the Action Congress, but there had not been time to add the names and photographs of the candidates.
At least 50 people died in violence surrounding the regional election, with street protests against many results.
Troops killed 26 Islamic militants in northern Kano state on Wednesday after they attacked a police station and killed 13 officers.
The main opposition challenger, former army strongman Muhammadu Buhari of the All Nigeria People’s Party, said the state poll was the worst election in Nigerian history.
In a nationwide address, President Olusegun Obasanjo conceded the first election was flawed, but told aggrieved losers to seek redress through the legal system.
The former military ruler said there was no alternative to democracy, which returned to Nigeria in 1999. “Let us continue to improve on the structure and the house rather than pull it down because it is leaking in part,” he said on Friday.
Oil prices rose because of dealers’ fears a sham vote could further disrupt supplies from the world’s eighth largest exporter, where output is already cut by violence.
The PDP has fielded a little-known state governor, Umaru Yar’Adua, as its candidate but the opposition says he is a puppet. Critics say Obasanjo wants to continue to dominate from behind the scenes.