Ruling party claims victory in contested Nigeria vote

Outside observers note intimidation and vote rigging

Robyn Dixon, Los Angeles Times
Tuesday, April 24, 2007

(04-24) 04:00 PDT Lagos, Nigeria -- Ruling-party candidate Umaru Yar Adua was declared winner Monday of Nigeria's presidential elections amid widespread condemnation of ballot rigging, intimidation and violence and calls to cancel the results.

The main opposition candidates rejected the result as a sham. Muhammadu Buhari, who came in second in the official vote count, called it "the most blatantly rigged election results ever produced in Nigeria."

President Olusegun Obasanjo ruled out a rerun of Saturday's balloting, even as observers from the European Union and U.S.-based International Republican Institute found that the election failed to meet international democratic standards.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Curtis Cooper said the election was marked by "deplorable" levels of violence and "credible reports of gross malfeasance and vote rigging."

"An analysis of the process by most international observers does not conform with what the Nigerian national election commission has reported," he said.

Because Nigeria is Africa's most populous country and a top oil producer, its steps toward democracy reverberate across the region, according to analysts.

The balloting, the first transfer of power from one civilian administration to another, was supposed to cement Nigeria's democracy. But analysts said the optimism of 1999, when the country shrugged off decades of near-continuous military rule to embrace elections and civilian rule, has faded.

Yar Adua won by a landslide, according to official results: 24.6 million votes, more than triple the 6.6 million total for Buhari, a former military leader. Vice President Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who was barred from running until the supreme court gave him the green light just days before the balloting, received 2.6 million votes.

In comments to state television, Yar Adua, 56, said that he was humbled by his victory but that he had expected to win. "I did, because my party is strong and we enjoy the goodwill of the Nigerian people," he said.

Obasanjo conceded in a television address before the announcement of results that the election was marred by multiple voting, ballot-box theft and logistical problems. He accused political leaders of "fanning the embers of hatred and violence."

"I am disappointed in the conduct of the political parties and their candidates who have employed thugs and violent means to secure what they consider electoral victory," he said.

The president added that dissatisfied parties can take legal action through election tribunals designed to resolve disputes.

Obasanjo was barred from seeking a third term by the constitution. He is scheduled to relinquish office May 29 to Yar Adua, a Muslim and former chemistry teacher who comes from an elite political family but is little known outside his home state of Katsina, in the north.

Human Rights Watch spokesman Christopher Albin-Lackey said the vote was stolen in "a truly devastating blow" for Nigeria's development as a democracy. Local observers demanded new balloting.

Albin-Lackey dismissed Obasanjo's remarks as "disingenuous."

"The president knows full well that to say these elections weren't perfect is a gross understatement. The fact is, they were much worse than imperfect. They were stolen," Albin-Lackey said in a telephone interview from the Nigerian countryside.

"Vote rigging and violence and intimidation were so widespread that it's impossible to conclude anything but that the rights of Nigerian voters were stolen from them in the most brazen possible fashion."

The European Union reported that at least 200 people died in election violence from April 14 to 21.

The chief of the EU observer mission, Max Van den Berg, said it would be damaging for the country if Nigeria's ruling class continued to ignore the will of the people. Elections in 2003 also were condemned by international observers.

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This article appeared on page A - 6 of the San Francisco Chronicle