Obasanjo wins but fraud mars election

PRESIDENT Olusegun Obasanjo has won Nigeria’s presidential election, according to official results released yesterday.

With 764 of Nigeria’s 774 local government districts having declared their results, Mr Obasanjo had an unassailable lead and passed the minimum threshold for victory with 25% support in at least two-thirds of Nigeria's 36 states.

With 41,331,691 votes counted, Mr Obasanjo had 24,109,157 or 61.8% of the vote, while his main challenger Muhammadu Buhari trailed on 12,495,326 or 32%.

However, European Union observers said yesterday that Nigeria’s presidential elections were marred by serious irregularities and fraud.

The main opposition party also alleges last weekend’s elections in Africa’s most populous country and a major world oil exporter were “a huge joke” and dismissed official results showing a sweeping victory for Mr Obasanjo.

The EU verdict overshadowed a report from the Commonwealth that had boosted Mr Obasanjo, a prominent player in efforts to attract investment to Africa in return for better governance and fair elections.

“The presidential and a number of gubernatorial (governorship) elections were marred by serious irregularities and fraud -- in a certain number of states, minimum standards (news - web sites) for democratic elections were not met,” the 11-strong EU observer team said in a statement.

Nigerians are hoping to end decades of instability and improve their country's poor international image by successfully transferring power from one elected government to another.

More than 10,000 people have been killed in ethnic, religious and political clashes in Nigeria since a 1999 military-supervised election that put Mr Obasanjo in office.

At least four independent groups of foreign and local observers have listed serious electoral fraud affecting the results in at least seven southern states.