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Ruling party candidate wins 'flawed' Nigerian election

This article is more than 16 years old

Nigeria's ruling party presidential candidate, Umaru Yar'Adua, was declared the winner today of the weekend's fraud-tainted election that the EU described as "not credible" and Washington called "deeply troubling".

The outgoing president, Olusegun Obasanjo, acknowledged fraud and other "lapses" in the vote but said the result reflected opinion polls. In a national television address he added that if Nigerians do not like his handpicked successor's victory they will have an opportunity to vote again in four years.

The final results gave 24.6m votes to Mr Yar'Adua, the 56-year old Muslim governor of northern Katsina state. His nearest rival, the former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari, received 6.6m votes and the outgoing vice-president, Atiku Abubakar, won 2.6m.

Opposition leaders called for a rerun of the election after international and Nigerian monitors said it was afflicted by blatant ballot box stuffing, a severe shortage of voting papers in some opposition areas and violence. They say they will call their supporters onto the streets in protest and launch a legal challenge that could delay Mr Yar'Adua's swearing in at the end of May.

The ruling People's Democratic party (PDP) is also well ahead in elections for the Nigerian parliament's upper house, the Senate, and appears likely to win a clear majority in the lower House of Representatives.

Mr Yar'Adua said he felt "humbled" by his victory and dismissed claims that he had won through fraud. He attributed his victory to hard work by his party, and God.

But the credibility of the ballot was further questioned as it emerged that Mr Yar'Adua won key states on the back of an exceptionally large turnout that election monitors say they did not witness. The opposition said claims that 80% of registered voters cast ballots in some ruling party strongholds, while only 20% turned out in some opposition areas, is evidence that either ballot boxes were stuffed or the count manipulated on behalf of Mr Yar'Adua.

The head of the EU's observer mission, Max van den Berg, said in a statement that he could not endorse the vote as legitimate.

"These elections have not lived up to the hopes and expectations of the Nigerian people and the process cannot be considered to have been credible," he said.

The US state department said the elections were flawed, "and in some cases deeply flawed", but said it was not calling for a rerun.

Appearing subdued, Mr Obasanjo acknowledged shortcomings.

"Our elections could not have been said to have been perfect," he said. "Cases of electoral fraud reported from parts of the country."

But he said they had not had a significant impact on the outcome and he advised those who feel aggrieved to use the constitutional legal process to challenge the outcome. He also accused some opposition leaders of fanning violence and "outright subversive activity".

The head of the national election commission, Maurice Iwu, said the ballot had "not gone without difficulties" and that it was "far from perfect" but blamed logistical difficulties. He declared that overall the elections were "free and fair and credible".

But much of the Nigerian press has strongly criticised the election calling it a "rape of democracy" and "fraudulent".

A respected political weekly, Tell magazine, quoted an observation attributed to Joseph Stalin as applicable: "Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything".

Mr Yar'Adua was always going to face a struggle to assert himself as being independent of Mr Obasanjo, who dominated the ruling party's campaign and will remain PDP leader even after stepping down as president. But Mr Yar'Adua's task has been made all the more difficult by the widespread questioning of the legitimacy of his election.

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