Nigerian Leader Reelected Amid Allegations of Substantial Fraud

President Olusegun Obasanjo was declared reelected here in Africa’s most populous nation Tuesday as opposition parties vowed to reject the results of a vote marred by violence and charges of substantial fraud.

Election officials said Obasanjo won Saturday’s balloting with 24.5 million, or 61%, of the votes -- nearly twice the 12.5 million received by his main rival, former coup leader Muhammadu Buhari.

Even before the results were declared late Tuesday, however, tension gripped the nation of 129 million people as officials of Buhari’s All Nigeria People’s Party issued veiled threats to summon supporters to the streets.

Party Chairman Don Etiebet told reporters that party faithful would “act appropriately according to human nature.”

“We do not need to tell the people what to do,” Etiebet added. “They will know what to do when their mandate has been trampled upon.”

Obasanjo, a former military head of state who was elected in a military-supervised election four years ago, is trying to create history by pushing Nigeria from one civilian administration to another. The first such effort, 20 years ago, ended in a coup by the military, which has ruled the West African country for most of its 43 years of independence.

Obasanjo’s first task will be to convince Nigerians and international observers that his reelection represented the will of the people.

On Tuesday, the European Union, which deployed dozens of poll monitors around the country, leveled the harshest criticism yet about the election, which also included balloting for the governorships of all 36 of Nigeria’s states.

The voting was “marred by serious irregularities throughout the country and fraud in at least 11” states, EU monitors said in a statement.

European poll monitors, it said, witnessed fraud that included “stuffing of ballot boxes, forgery of results, falsification of result sheets, ballot box snatching and a variety of other means of rigging,” mainly in states won by Obasanjo’s People’s Democratic Party.

“The elections in [at least six] states lack credibility, and appropriate measures must be taken by the relevant authorities,” the EU said.

The EU’s statement echoed similar concerns expressed this week by American, Commonwealth and local poll monitors.

In a victory speech late Tuesday, however, Obasanjo made no reference to those concerns.

“I am delighted to say that electorally, Nigeria has come of age,” he said.

Both local and foreign monitors have urged aggrieved candidates to eschew violence and take their complaints to electoral tribunals run by senior judges.

On Tuesday, Nigeria’s electoral regulators expressed concern that criticism of the vote by local and foreign observers could help trigger violence.

“This is dangerous, especially for a country teetering on a crisis,” said Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, secretary of the Independent National Electoral Commission, who was at the news conference where the EU leveled its criticisms.

Meanwhile, reports streamed into Abuja, the federal capital, that at least 16 people had been killed in election violence.

In a separate incident Sunday, gunmen killed at least five people in an attack on a convoy of cars carrying Iyabo Obasanjo, the president’s daughter.

A presidential spokesman said Iyabo Obasanjo escaped unhurt in the attack near the president’s farm in southwestern Nigeria. The spokesman said he did not know whether the attack was politically motivated.