Nigeria: Observers express 'serious concerns' about election

International observers said today that stolen ballot boxes and fudged tallies could compromise Nigerians’ confidence in presidential elections held over the weekend.

The country’s Muslim-dominated northern opposition rejected the vote as a “huge joke” after President Olusegun Obasanjo, a south-western Christian, took a commanding lead in early returns.

The election was seen as a key test of whether democracy and stability have taken hold in Africa’s most populous nation.

The condemnation by followers of Muhammadu Buhari, Obasanjo’s main challenger, reinforced Nigeria’s often violent ethnic and religious divide.

“The entire so-called election is a huge joke,” said Sam Nda-Isai, Buhari’s campaign spokesman.

“As far as we are concerned, democracy has failed.”

Journalists and observers witnessed apparent corruption, including ballot box theft and bribery.

“We have serious concerns about the legitimacy of the results in certain constituencies,” said Kenneth Wollack, president of the Washington-based National Democratic Institution.

In Rivers state, a restive area where Obasanjo won 92%, “you could hardly say an election was conducted,” he said.

And he called for “extraordinary steps” to reform Nigeria’s electoral process to restore public confidence in democracy.

Nigeria’s election commission has promised to overturn results in cases of proven fraud. Yet commission chief Abel Guobadia insisted the vote was clean.

“As far as we are concerned, (so far) there has been no rigging,” he said.

Vote-counting was continuing today. Early returns showed Obasanjo well ahead of Buhari. With more than 35m votes counted in partial returns from 32 states and the federal capital territory, Obasanjo had 61% compared to 33% for Buhari. Obasanjo’s party also won 21 of 24 state governorships counted so far.

Combined with a sweeping win in legislative elections last week, the results appeared to strengthen Obasanjo’s grip at all levels of government.

Buhari led a 1983 coup after an election widely derided as flawed. He is a Muslim and one of the Fulani ethnic group. His main support is in the north.

Obasanjo, a Christian and ethnic Yoruba who was also a military leader in the 1970s, is most popular in his south-western home region.