| ||
| ||
| ||
| ||
 |
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Violence mars Nigerian election
LAGOS, Nigeria (Reuters) -- Nigeria's electoral commission appealed to security forces on Monday to protect its staff as results from parliamentary polls showed President Olusegun Obasanjo's party in a comfortable lead. "Election officials have been manhandled and in many cases even beaten up," Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, secretary of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), told a news conference. "Please protect our staff," he said in the capital Abuja, directing his comments to security forces in Africa's most populous state of more than 120 million. Despite his call and at least 13 killings in election violence, foreign observers from the Commonwealth and the European Union praised the overall conduct of Saturday's vote, the dress rehearsal for presidential polls on April 19. "In much of Nigeria, voting was generally peaceful. There were violent incidents in certain places but the most pessimistic predictions were confounded," Salim Ahmed Salim, the Tanzanian head of the Commonwealth's 22-strong observer team, said in a statement. The EU's observer mission said it welcomed "the fact that polling took place in a generally peaceful manner, despite isolated cases of violence." By Monday evening, more than 48 hours after polling ended in the vast oil-producing country, the INEC had declared 207 of the 360 House of Representatives seats, with Obasanjo's Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) winning 116. A Reuters tally of 254 House seats -- obtained from state INEC officials and local correspondents -- showed the PDP winning 132. The main opposition party, the All Nigeria People's Party (ANPP), had 84. An estimated 10,000 people have been killed in outbreaks of ethnic, religious and political violence in Nigeria since 1999 when Obasanjo's election ended 15 years of military rule. Nigeria has had little political stability since independence from Britain in 1960 and has never experienced a successful transition from one civilian administration to another. Past attempts in 1965 and 1983 were cut short by military coups. Results reflect enthic cleavagesThe results reflected Nigeria's strong ethnic cleavages, with Obasanjo faring well in his southwestern Yoruba heartland, rubbing out the threat of the rival Alliance for Democracy (AD) apart from in Lagos, the chaotic commercial capital. The ANPP was well ahead in its northern, mainly Muslim power base. Obasanjo's main challenger for the presidency will be the ANPP's Muhamadu Buhari -- both men are former military presidents who took power in coups d'etat. Baba-Ahmed said violence against election officials at counting centres had been widespread and that no single party had the monopoly on violence. Three people were shot dead on Sunday night in Pankshin, in central Plateau State, at a vote-counting centre, police and election officials said. The killings occurred during a clash between supporters of the PDP and the AD in which several houses were burned and INEC officials were threatened. At least five people were killed over the weekend in the oil-rich Niger Delta. Anger is intense among villagers living in the patchwork of swamps and creeks bordering the Atlantic. They complain about the division of oil revenues and environmental damage. Ethnic militants said they battled with troops and the navy and that voting was disrupted on Sunday after being postponed on Saturday in several areas. "The navy and army took a gunboat and started shooting indiscriminately into the village of Warri Corner," said militant Kingsley Otuaro. The INEC's results website stopped giving data that would provide turnout figures. Officials said the data was absent from many local returns, but before the suspension the turnout was averaging a disappointing 30 percent.
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
