Nigeria 
Legitimacy of Nigerian poll doubted

afrol News, 27 April - As both the Nigerian opposition and international election observers cry out against "rigging and intimidation" during last week's polls, re-elected President Olusegun Obasanjo defends the "culture and environment" of the same polls. Opposition parties have already demanded fresh elections.

Several Nigerian opposition parties on Wednesday had demanded the cancellation of elections, which had given incumbent President Obasanjo an unexpected landslide victory. The Independent National Electoral Council had announced that Mr Obasanjo had secured 62 percent of the vote in Africa's most populous country.

The leading opposition presidential candidate Muhammadu Buhari of the All Nigeria People's Party (ANPP) - who officially obtained 32 percent of the vote - also doubted the rightfulness of the results presented by electoral council. He however said he would not encourage mass protests, but instead announced his party would go to electoral tribunals to challenge Mr Obasanjo's victory.

Mr Buhari further counted on the assistance from the international community. The ANPP called on foreign governments not to recognise the election results until the courts had decided on the polls' outcome.

The opposition has already obtained support from abroad. The EU Election Observation Mission (EOM) to Nigeria in a "preliminary statement" has concluded that the elections were "marred by serious irregularities and fraud in many [Nigerian] states" and that "minimum standards for democratic elections were not met."

The European observers had "witnessed and obtained evidence of widespread election fraud in certain states." In particular, "many instances of ballot box stuffing, changing of results and other serious irregularities were observed," the preliminary statement said. In many Nigerian states, however, elections were reported as "by and large orderly."

Also the United States State Department spokesman Richard Boucher has reacted to the widespread allegations of electoral fraud in Nigeria. In his daily press briefings this week, Mr Boucher noted that international and domestic election monitors had reported "widespread voting irregularities."

Mr Boucher however emphasised that Nigeria's electoral laws provide for investigation and redress. "We urge all the interested parties with complaints of electoral malfeasance to present their evidence to the competent tribunals and for the tribunals to consider those complaints in a fair and transparent manner."

Nigerian President Obasanjo however reacted negatively to these comments from abroad, accusing the EU and the US of failing to appreciate Nigeria's "peculiar environment" at a press conference in Abuja on Friday. He added that "the Europeans should not think that we are Europeans. Our culture and environment are different from theirs."

While the European observers had failed to understand Nigeria's "cultural milieu," a group of observers from the Commonwealth, which had provided far more positive conclusions, had done just that. "The Commonwealth took into consideration the peculiar Nigerian environment," President Obasanjo emphasised.

Nigeria's "peculiar environment" among other things consists of little democratic experience. This month's polls are the country's first attempt to hand over power from one civilian administration to another. This was also appreciated by the US government, which congratulated "the overwhelming majority of Nigerian people for what was a peaceful exercise of their right to vote."

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