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Nigeria's polls 'a charade'
23/04/2007 14:07 - (SA)
Abuja - Nigeria's largest local group monitoring elections demanded on Monday the cancellation of last weekend's vote for the country's president and parliament, slamming the polls as "a charade" staged by the government.
"Our monitors throughout the country... documented numerous lapses, irregularities and electoral malpractices that characterised the election in many states," Innocent Chukwuma, head of the transition monitoring group (TMG), told journalists.
Irregularities were so numerous and so far-reaching that "the election was a charade and did not meet the standards required for democratic elections", he said.
"We therefore reject it and call for its cancellation," he said, demanding a rerun within three months. The group had 50 000 monitors on the ground.
It blamed election shortcomings on the Nigerian government and on the electoral commission (INEC), accusing them of having "failed wilfully in their responsibility to conduct free, fair and credible elections".
Turning to world opinion, Chukwuma said: "We call on the international community not to recognise these discredited elections and not to confer legitimacy on any government that emerges therefrom."
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