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Nigeria's Yar'Adua set to win
23/04/2007 14:09 - (SA)
Lagos - Ruling party candidate Umar Yar'Adua was on course to win the Nigerian presidency on Monday, according to early results from disputed elections that were roundly condemned by foreign observers.
Umar Yar'Adua was leading his two leading opposition rivals in most southern states and in parts of the northwest and central north, according to partial results cited by local newspapers and websites.
As the national electoral commission prepared to issue the official count in the race to take over from President Olusegun Obasanjo, opposition leaders demanded a re-run of Saturday's chaotic poll which foreign monitors said failed to meet international standards.
The mild-mannered 55-year-old who is governor of one of the country's northern states is backed by Obasanjo and was the pre-poll favourite.
His leading rivals, Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Obasanjo's former friend-turned-foe, and onetime military ruler Muhammadu Buhari, both slammed the poll as unfair and undemocratic.
"I have already rejected the elections," said Abubakar, demanding a re-run. "They have no alternative other than to cancel them altogether."
'Worst election ever seen'
"What we have seen clearly proves our fears that it is the worst election ever seen," Abubakar added.
Turnout appeared low for Saturday's presidential and legislative elections after ballot papers printed at the last minute arrived hours late, or not at all, in many of the 120 000 voting stations of Africa's most populous nation.
And printing errors on ballots forced the cancellation of the race for seats in the parliament and the senate in many parts of the country of 140 million people.
"Incidents have given rise to concerns that not all Nigerians entitled to vote really were able to do so freely and without fear," said the German presidency of the European Union, which had an observer team on the ground.
A US observer team, the International Republican Institute, cited under-age voting, stuffed ballot boxes and voter registration problems, while Nigeria's largest poll monitoring group threatened to call for a re-run.
"From all the reports we are getting from the field, these were not credible elections, so it tends to the direction that we will reject the results and ask for new elections to be held," Innocent Chukwuma of the Transition Monitoring Group told AFP.
Saturday's election had been touted as a democratic showcase marking the African giant's first peaceful handover of power from one civilian to another since independence in 1960.
With all eyes on the future stability of the world's violence-prone sixth oil exporter, electoral commission chief Maurice Iwu insisted on Sunday that the polls were successful, free and fair.
To win in the presidential election a candidate must have the highest number of votes overall and a majority in at least 24 out of the nation's 36 states.
- AFP
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