The Hindu : Nigerian Opposition seeks vote review

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Apr 17, 2003

International

International

Nigerian Opposition seeks vote review

LAGOS (Nigeria) April 16. Nigeria's Opposition parties rejected the results of the legislative elections, saying on Tuesday that the ruling party's strong showing was illegitimate and demanding an independent review.

By Tuesday, full results from the Saturday vote still had not yet come in. However, partial returns indicated a strong showing by the President, Olusegun Obasanjo's Peoples Democratic Party — an outcome likely to bolster his bid to return to power as leader of Africa's most populous nation.

The parliamentary elections — the first civilian-run ballot in two decades — were considered a gauge of voter sentiment in this nation of 126 million ahead of next Saturday's presidential balloting that pits Mr. Obasanjo against 19 Opposition candidates.

They were also a test of Nigeria's young democracy, as both of the West African nation's previous attempts to hand over power democratically from one civilian administration to another were thwarted by military coups.

But the vote was marred by at least two dozen deaths and organisational chaos, including ballot shortages and long delays.

Opposition leaders were not calling for a cancellation of the results, and said they would not boycott the presidential vote. But they urged a review in areas where the ruling party won and accused officials of tampering with results — in some cases, ballot stuffing.

``We reject the results in totality,'' said Don Etiebet, leader of the main Opposition party, the All Nigeria People's Party. Twenty-eight Opposition groups banded together to reject the vote.

``The results are spurious and the whole elections flawed.''

— AP

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