Nigeria’s elections get failing marks

The ruling party’s hopes that weekend elections in Nigeria would be accepted as credible were dampened Sunday when local observers and the main opposition parties condemned what they said was vote-rigging and called for a repeat of the balloting.

Germany, which currently holds the European Union presidency, issued a statement raising doubts on whether Saturday’s presidential and parliamentary elections were free and fair after EU observers expressed concern over irregularities.

One of the main presidential contenders, Vice President Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, said the balloting was a sham and called for the results to be quashed.

The elections were seen as a key test of Nigeria’s development as a democracy, the first transfer of power from one civilian administration to another in a country ruled predominantly by the military since independence in 1960.

The vote was marred by logistical problems, balloting delays and violence in some areas, and followed state elections a week earlier that brought a hail of criticism from international and local observers.

The outcome of Saturday’s polling is due today, with fears of possible clashes once the results are known.

Umaru Yar Adua, presidential candidate for the ruling People’s Democratic Party, is widely expected to be declared the winner today, given preliminary results released Sunday and the party’s strong showing in the state elections.

The Transition Monitoring Group, a Nigerian organization with 50,000 poll watchers, said it would call for new balloting.

“We are going to call for a rerun of the elections. You cannot use the results from half the country to announce a new president,” monitoring group Chairman Innocent Chukwuma told Reuters news agency.

Abubakar, running for the Action Congress Party, and President Olusegun Obasanjo were former allies who had a falling-out when the vice president opposed Obasanjo’s unsuccessful effort to change the constitution in a bid for a third term.

“I have already rejected the elections,” Abubakar told reporters in Abuja, the capital. “They have no alternative other than to cancel them altogether.”

robyn.dixon@latimes.com