Ruling party to forfeit results?
2003-04-30 10:40
Abuja - Nigeria's ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said on Tuesday that it was prepared to forfeit some results in the April 19 presidential election in six states of the federation after charges of irregularity.
Meanwhile, Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo received congratulatory messages for his re-election in the April 19 poll from the international community, including Britain, Cuba, Mali and Libya.
The well wishers congratulated Nigeria for a peaceful transition from one civilian administration to another for the first time in its history. The April 19 election was the first in a democratic setting for 20 years.
The EU Election Observation Mission had declared that polling in the affected states in the Niger Delta was marred by irregularities. The ruling party said that even without the results in affected states, its candidate, President Olusegun Obasanjo, would win the election.
But the Nigerian election commission attacked the EU observer mission, saying it had produced a "jaundiced" report.
Abel Guobadia, who chairs the Independent National Electoral Commission, told reporters that the EU mission was unfair in its report.
The observer mission of the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) declared that the election was "free, fair and transparent". The Ecowas mission monitored the election in 1 of Nigeria's 36 component states.
International observers including the United States' International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute and the Nigerian-based Transition Monitoring Group, also criticised Obasanjo's re-election, particularly the results in the Rivers, Bayelsa and Cross River states, all in the Niger Delta, and in the Imo and Enugu states in the southeast.
The E.U. Election Observation Mission also condemned the election in Kaduna State in the north, where it declared that the process was marred by irregularities.
National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Venatius Ikem, said the party sympathised with those who lost the presidential election, particularly the main rival, the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), but said the PDP worked very hard for its victory.
Ikem said PDP was not unaware of the position of the international observers and calls by the ANPP to cancel the election results in the disputed states.
He said PDP was not bothered by such calls, since, in the reckoning of the party, a cancellation of results in the six states, would still leave Obasanjo with a comfortable lead.
"A cancellation would still leave President Obasanjo the winner. The breakdown shows that President Obasanjo polled 6 863 653 votes in the six states as against the 1 014 966 votes received by his closest rival, Muhammadu Buhari of the ANPP," he said.
"Even with these subtractions, we know that Obasanjo would still have 25% of the votes cast in 32 states of the 36 states of the federation, enough to comfortably earn him the presidency as stipulated by the constitution," Ikem added. - Sapa-DPA
- SAPA