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Opposition rejects result
22/04/2003 22:56 - (SA)
Abuja - Nigeria's opposition parties refused to sign off on the results of presidential elections at a meeting with the electoral commission on Tuesday, the chair of the main opposition party said.
"Each of the parties refused to sign," Don Etiebet, chair of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), told reporters who had gathered at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to hear the result.
Etiebet and other opposition leaders gathered around him said that INEC had conspired with the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to deliver victory to President Olusegun Obasanjo in Saturday's poll.
The party leaders had been invited to endorse the results of the election before they were confirmed to waiting journalists, but after the news conference had been delayed by two hours they stormed out.
A PDP spokesperson said that INEC would still announce the results later.
Etiebet said: "There was an obvious plan - an arrangement - put in place to return the PDP at all costs in all parts of the country."
The ANPP's candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, was beaten by Obasanjo 24 million votes to 12 million with only five local government areas left to declare, according to INEC's official figures.
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