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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
NIGERIA: Obasanjo's official landslide has hollow ring
LAGOS, 12 May 2003 (IRIN) - The triumph of President Olusegun Obasanjo and his ruling party in Nigeria's general elections was as sweeping as it was unprecedented. But given widespread accusations of electoral fraud on a massive scale, their resounding victory has a hollow ring.
"I doubt the results reflect the mood of the electorate," Chima Ubani, the head of Nigeria's prominent human rights group, the Civil Liberties Organisation, told IRIN. "It's not the actual wish of the electorate but some machinery that has churned out unbelievable outcomes. We've seen a landslide that does not seem sufficiently explained by any available factor."
Most of Nigeria's 29 opposition parties have denounced plans for Obasanjo to be sworn in for a second four-year term on May 29. Instead they are demanding that Nigeria's chief justice over as interim head of state to organise fresh elections within three months.
Obasanjo, a former military ruler in the 1970's, officially won 62 percent of total votes cast in the presidential ballot on April 19 as he sought a second term as an elected civilian president. And in separate polls during April and early May, his People's Democratic Party (PDP) won an absolute majority in the national parliament and governorships and legislative majorities in 28 of Nigeria's 36 states.
Under previous democratic governments, Nigeria's ruling party always had to reach a pact with an opposition party to function effectively. But the PDP has surpassed even the comfortable majority it won in 1999, to arrive at the threshold of total one-party dominance.
However, Muhammadu Buhari, Obasanjo's main rival in the presidential election and leader of the country's biggest opposition party, the All Nigeria People's Party (ANPP) said the elections as "the most flagrantly rigged in Nigeria's history". Several other influential opposition parties agree.
Their strident condemnation would have seemed like sour grapes if local and international observers had not picked large holes in the conduct of the elections.
The most weight opinions from local observers came from the Transition Monitoring Group (TMG), a coalition of 170 human rights and civic organisations which had 10,000 election observers on the ground, and the Justice Development and Peace Commission of the Roman Catholic Church, which deployed 30,000 observers across Nigeria.
The TMG said it found cases of multiple and underage voting, snatching of ballot boxes by armed thugs and falsification of results. It said that while several parties were involved in fraud, the major beneficiary was Obasanjo and ruling PDP. They control the police and other security agencies, which were found to have been active in perpetrating electoral fraud.
The JDPC made similar observations, but also pointed an accusing finger at Nigeria's electoral commission. In many parts of the country the results which it announced did not reflect trends observed at the polling stations, the church monitoring group said. "Someone was fiddling with the figures," Ifeanyi Enwerem, the head of the JDPC told IRIN.
Similar cases of widespread electoral fraud and other premeditated malpractices were also reported by international monitors, including those from the European Union, the U.S-based National Democratic Institute and the International Republican Institute. Only the Commonwealth observer group, while noting cases of fraud, said it was convinced that the results did indeed reflect the will of the electorate.
The JDPC described as "incredible" official results showing nearly 100 percent turnout in southern Rivers State, with 2.1 million of 2.2 million registered voters casting their ballot for the ruling party on a day when observers reported a low turnout.
And in the volatile oil-rich Niger Delta, ethnic Ijaw militants questioned electoral commission figures showing an 98 percent turnout in their tribal area near the oil town of Warri. Weeks of fighting between Ijaws and people from the rival Itsekiri tribe and a boycott organised by Ijaw militants ensured there was practically no voting in the area. An electoral official assigned to work in the area told IRIN that top politicians in Obasanjo's PDP had taken home electoral materials and ballot boxes which they filled and returned.
Nigeria's lower chamber of parliament last week weighed in on the side of the critics by passing a motion asking for fresh elections in the entire south of the country and parts of the north, alleging "grave irregularities".
The House of Representatives also called for the dismissal of the country's police chief, Tafa Balogun and chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Abel Guobadia, blaming their agencies for the alleged disenfranchisement of millions of citizens.
Despite initially ignoring the criticism and commending INEC for its conduct of the polls, Obasanjo subsequently urged the electoral body to investigate some of the issues raised, particularly in Enugu and Rivers states in the southeast.
INEC said last Friday it had started an "exhaustive" investigation of its own officials for their alleged involvement in electoral fraud. However, political analysts said this is unlikely to satisfy opposition groups who have vowed to prevent Obasanjo's inauguration for a second term and have threatened "mass action" if fresh elections are not held.
Most of the aggrieved opposition parties are also preparing to challenge the results before electoral tribunals which are expected to begin sitting in the coming days. However, Nigeria's leading constitutional lawyer, Professor Ben Nwabuaeze, said these tribunals would not address the main avenues through which fraud had been committed.
"There is the right of the millions of voters whose votes had been rendered useless and their wishes thereby thwarted," he said. "These millions cannot go to the election tribunals or the court of appeal."
Themes: (IRIN) Governance
[ENDS]
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