NIGERIA: PRESIDENT OLUSEGUN OBASANJO DECLARED VICTORIOUS IN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS AMID CHAOTIC SCENES

Record ID: 237960

  • Title: NIGERIA: PRESIDENT OLUSEGUN OBASANJO DECLARED VICTORIOUS IN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS AMID CHAOTIC SCENES
  • Date: 24th April 2003
  • Summary: (W8) LAGOS, NIGERIA (APRIL 22, 2003) (REUTERS) 1. HAS CROWDED STREET IN OSHODI MARKET; MAN SELLING FRUIT (3 SHOTS) 0.13 2. HAS BUS DRIVING PAST RUBBISH; MV ELECTION POSTER; PILES OF RUBBISH IN STREET (6 SHOTS) 0.44 (W8) ABUJA, NIGERIA (APRIL 22, 2003) (REUTERS) 3. SV/MV PEOPLE WATCHING NEWS CONFERENCE CHAIRED BY DON ETIEDET, NATIONAL CHAIRMAN OF ALL NIGERIAN PEOPLES PARTY 0.53 4. (SOUNDBITE) (English) DON ETIEDET SAYING "Each members of the party refuse to sign the results on the grounds that the results and the numbers of polled were obviously very frivolous, that they did not reflect the wishes of the people." 1.10 5. SLV MAN SHOUTING; SCU SIGN READING 'MEDIA RESULTS CENTRE' 1.18 6. MV ABEL GUOBADIA, CHAIRMAN INDEPENDENT NATIONAL ELECTORAL COMMISSION, SITTING 1.25 7. (SOUNDBITE) (English) ABEL GUOBADIA SAYING "O. Obasanjo of the Peoples Democratic Party, having satisfied the requirements of the law and scored the highest number of votes, is hereby declared the winner and the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria." 1.36 8. MV PRESS LISTENING 1.41 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 9th May 2003 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LAGOS AND ABUJA, NIGERIA
  • Country: Nigeria
  • Reuters ID: LVA3WU2LQGDH0YXUJT5UVM6SI81D
  • Story Text: President Olusegun Obasanjo was declared victorious in
    Nigeria's presidential elections amid chaotic scenes on
    Tuesday after the opposition rejected the poll results as
    fraudulent.

    Residents in Lagos, one of the world's largest cities,
    battled to get on with their daily lives as they waited to
    hear the election results.

    European Union observers said earlier that fraud and
    serious irregularities had marred the April 19 elections in
    Africa's most populous nation and biggest oil exporter.

    The U.S. State Department said there had been "widespread
    and often credible claims of electoral malfeasance".

    Human rights campaigners raised the spectre of worsening
    sectarian violence in the predominantly Muslim north, where
    many feel their preferred candidate and Obasanjo's main
    opponent, Muhammadu Buhari, was crushed at the polls after
    massive use of government money by the ruling party.

    The electoral commission INEC gave Obasanjo, a born-again
    Christian from southern Nigeria, a crushing victory by a 2-1
    margin against Buhari, a northern Muslim.

    In a victory speech broadcast live, Obasanjo ignored the
    growing international criticism of the election, which he
    hailed as strengthening Nigeria's democracy.

    "Nigeria is impressively on course to the success of
    Election 2003 as reasonably free, fair and peaceful," he said.

    Without referring directly to his opponents' rejection of
    the election results, he said: "Good politicians should be
    good sportsmen, showing magnanimity and humility in victory
    and gallantry and goodnaturedness in defeat."
    But the reports of widespread polling irregularities and
    the opposition's rejection of the results were a humiliating
    setback for Nigerians hoping for a graceful transition from
    one elected government to another.

    "O. Obasanjo of the Peoples Democratic Party, having
    satisfied the requirements of the law and scored the highest
    number of votes, is hereby declared the winner and the
    president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria," declared INEC
    chairman Abel Guobadia.

    He was guarded by heavily armed police who earlier
    escorted him from the prepared proclamation venue after it was
    stormed by furious opposition leaders.

    They had refused to sign their approval of INEC's results
    on the grounds that they did not reflect the wishes of the
    people, spokesman Don Etiebet told reporters.

    Obasanjo scored 24.5 million ballots versus 12.7 million
    for Buhari. Ironically both men are former generals who once
    headed military juntas but who have become born-again
    democrats.

    "Any government that is formed on the basis of this
    so-called election shall be illegitimate and we shall not
    recognise it," Buhari's All Nigeria Peoples' Party said.

    "A fraudulent democracy is worse than a dictatorship."
    The opposition was weighing its options which could
    include filing complaints at election tribunals to seek
    re-votes.

    At least 25 people have been killed since last Saturday's
    vote. More than 10,000 people have been killed in ethnic,
    religious and political clashes in Nigeria since a 1999
    military-supervised election put Obasanjo in office.

    "The presidential and a number of (governorship) elections
    were marred by serious irregularities and fraud - in a certain
    number of states, minimum standards for democratic elections
    were not met," the 118-strong EU observer team said on
    Tuesday.

    "(The) observers witnessed and obtained evidence of
    widespread election fraud in 13 states," they said in a
    statement.

    The Washington-based National Democratic Institute said on
    Monday it had found "ballot stuffing, rigging, voter
    intimidation, violence and fraud", particularly in the
    southern oil-producing delta region and the southeast.

    But observers from the 54-nation Commonwealth of mainly
    ex-British colonies disagreed with the downbeat assessments.

    "In most of the country conditions were such as to enable
    the will of the people to be expressed," Salim Ahmed Salim,
    head of the 22-member Commonwealth team, told Reuters.

    INEC said 65 percent of the 61 million registered voters
    turned out to cast their ballots.

    Obasanjo's ruling PDP party also dominated elections for
    the Senate, House of Representatives and state governors.

    Both Obasanjo and Buhari went into the polls saying they
    wanted to improve Nigeria's poor image, promising to battle
    corruption, crime and poverty.

    Obasanjo is in the forefront, along with South Africa, of
    efforts to attract more foreign investment to Africa in return
    for better governance, fair elections and respect for human
    rights.

    Earlier residents in Lagos, one of the world's largest
    cities which suffers from crime, pollution and water
    shortages, battled to get on with their daily lives as they
    waited to hear the election results.


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