Incumbent wins flawed Nigerian poll

AWKA, Nigeria
Sunday

The incumbent in Nigeria’s Anambra state was today pronounced the winner of a flawed gubernatorial vote seen as a test for Africa’s largest democracy ahead of presidential elections next year.

Would-be voters across the state complained their names were not on electoral rolls. Local observers said false names such as “Nelson Mandela” were on lists that appeared to have been tampered with while legitimate voters were turned away.

“I came out to vote and found out that in my own polling booth I am the only member of my family whose name is on the register. My brothers and my sisters, every other person’s name is not there. This is very, very worrisome,” incumbent governor Peter Obi told reporters after refusing to cast his vote.

“Information reaching me is that it is the same case all over the state. The consequence is that if this is allowed to go on, over 80 percent of the people will be disenfranchised and if that is the case then I will not vote,” he said.

The election in Anambra, one of Nigeria’s most politically turbulent states in the southeast of the country, is the first in a cycle of state and federal polls culminating in presidential elections due in April 2011.

Leadership polls in Nigeria’s 36 states are critical because state governors are powerful figures — some controlling budgets larger than those of entire neighbouring countries — and key players in party conventions at which presidential candidates are chosen.

Anambra is one of eight opposition states the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) is anxious to take by 2011.

Despite the chaos, the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) today declared Mr Obi of the opposition All Progressives Grand Alliance victor despite glitches and fears the vote would be rigged in favour of President Umaru Yar’Adua’s party.

President Yar’Adua has been receiving medical treatment in Saudi Arabia for more than two months and his failure to hand over formally to Vice President Goodluck Jonathan has brought the country to the brink of a constitutional crisis.

“Peter Obi... having satisfied all requirements of the law and scored the highest number of votes, is hereby declared the winner,” said chief returning officer Josiah Uwazuruonye.

But, some observers declared the elections free and an improvement on previous polls in the politically volatile southeastern state.

Observers reported incidents of vote buying, and police confirmed that thugs had tried to snatch a ballot box from one polling post. The 2007 poll that brought Mr Yar’Adua to power was tainted by widespread rigging and voter intimidation, and he had vowed to improve the credibility of elections in the continent’s most populous nation.

Mr Obi overwhelmingly won the vote with 97,843 votes, ahead of closest rival Chris Ngige, from the Action Congress opposition party, who took 60,240 ballots.

The ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) candidate and former central bank governor Chukwuma Soludo came third garnering 59,755 votes.
There were widespread fears that INEC would manipulate the vote in favour of PDP.

“We give kudos to INEC for not living up to the justified cynical perception,” said Ikeazor Akaraiwe who headed an independent team of monitors appointed by INEC.

“In the midst of all we can say the result reflects the will of the people of Anambra,” he added.

Governors of Nigeria’s 36 states are powerful, being key in the selection of presidential candidates at party conventions.

The PDP controls all but eight of the 36 states and Anambra is one of the few in the hands of the opposition.

Meanwhile, a Nigerian militant group said today it had attacked a Royal Dutch Shell oil pipeline in the Niger Delta but the Anglo-Dutch company said it had no reports of any such sabotage.

The Joint Revolutionary Council (JRC), a coalition of ex-militants and community leaders, said in a statement it had disabled a trunk line in the Obunoma area of Rivers state connecting several flow stations to the Bonny export terminal.

“At about midnight today, the patriotic force of the Niger Delta successfully disabled the trunk line belonging to Shell in the swamp of Obunoma,” the JRC statement said. Thousands of militants in the Niger Delta last year handed over weapons under an amnesty programme. (Agencies)