NIGERIA: Irregularities and fraud have marred Nigeria's presidential elections, EU observers said yesterday as official results gave President Olusegun Obasanjo a spectacular victory.
At least 25 people have been killed in Africa's most populous country since the April 19th vote, which was dismissed by the main opposition party as "a huge joke".
"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.
"\ observers witnessed and obtained evidence of widespread election fraud in 13 states," the EU statement said.
The EU's verdict was much harsher than a report by Commonwealth observers that had boosted Mr Obasanjo, a prominent player in efforts to attract investment in return for better governance and fair elections.
"In most of the country conditions were such as to enable the will of the people to be expressed," said Mr Salim Ahmed Salim, head of the 22-member Commonwealth team.
Last night the opposition parties refused to sign off on the results.
Local politicians and police reported at least 25 deaths. The worst single incident was in central Benue state where opposition leaders said 18 of their supporters celebrating a local victory on Saturday were massacred by soldiers in the town of Adikpo. Police confirmed eight deaths there.
Separately, it was confirmed yesterday that gunmen attacked the car convoy of Mr Obasanjo's daughter Iyabo near the president's farm at Otta, outside Lagos, on Sunday night, killing four people. She was not in the car that was hit. State radio quoted national police as saying they suspected robbery as the motive.
With votes counted in 759 of 774 areas, Mr Obasanjo, a born-again Christian from southern Nigeria, had an unassailable lead with 24 million ballots, or 62 per cent of the vote, according to results released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Mr Obasanjo also met the second requirement for election by scoring at least 25 per cent of the vote in at least two-thirds of the 36 states and in the federal capital, Abuja.
The victory will be final when it is proclaimed by INEC chairman, Mr Abel Guobadia.
Mr Muhammadu Buhari, from the predominantly Muslim north of the world's eighth biggest oil exporter, had 12.4 million votes or 32 per cent.
The turnout was 65 per cent of the 61 million registered voters, a spectacular total for an African election.
Ironically, both Mr Obasanjo and Mr Buhari are ex-generals who have led military juntas in Nigeria.
Today he and Mr Buhari are born-again democrats and say they want to improve Nigeria's poor image with a successful transfer of power from one elected government to another.
According to the opposition and most foreign and local observers, that goal was not properly achieved in many areas of the west African nation in a series of elections for the National Assembly, state governors and the presidency.
"What we are doing is condemning the election in its entirety," Mr Augustus Aikhomu, a senior figure in Mr Buhari's All Nigeria People's Party (ANPP), said on state radio yesterday.