Opposition rejects Nigerian poll

Opposition rejects Nigerian poll

The stakes are high for President Obasanjo (in glasses)

Nigeria's opposition parties have decided to reject the validity of results from the weekend's parliamentary elections.

With some three-quarters of the results now announced, President Olusegun Obasanjo's ruling party in Nigeria is on course for a convincing victory.

But after a meeting of opposition parties held in the capital, Abuja, a spokesman for the meeting, Don Etiebet, said the election was flawed and the results coming in were "very, very spurious".

Current projections suggest the People's Democratic Party will secure an absolute majority in both the Senate and the lower house of the National Assembly.

Voting was also marred by violence in the south and east, though observers said the weekend's legislative election was more peaceful than expected.

RESULTS SO FAR

House of Representatives
PDP 170, ANPP 81, AD 30, Others 6

Senate
PDP 52, ANPP 25, AD 5

The vote is considered an important test for Nigerian democracy, and is the first vote since President Obasanjo's election in 1999 ended 15 years of military rule.

The BBC's Dan Isaacs says that President Obasanjo is strongly placed to fend off all challengers to his position in the presidential poll, which takes place on Saturday.

By Wednesday at 0700GMT, 287 of the 360 House of Representatives seats had been declared. , with the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) winning 170 of them.

Its nearest rival, the All Nigeria People's Party (ANPP) of the former military head of state Muhammadu Buhari, has 81 seats while the Alliance of Democracy (AD) has 30.

In the 109 member Senate, the PDP has won 52 of the 82 seats declared so far. The ANPP have 25 and the AD five seats.

'Massive rigging'

President Obasanjo will seek re-election on 19 April when his main opponent will be Mr Buhari. But he will also face 18 other candidates.

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In a national television address, he congratulated Nigerians for voting "in an atmosphere that was definitely free and fair, and definitely nowhere near the pre-election predictions".

But independent observers from the Commonwealth, the European Union and the United States expressed concern over the violence during polling, and logistical problems like the late opening of polling stations.

BBC News Online's Joseph Winter in Port Harcourt said local ANPP activists had complained that the vote was marred by shooting, intimidation and the late arrival of voting materials

ANPP spokesman Ibrahim Modibo told Reuters in the Nigerian capital Abuja that there was "was massive rigging by the PDP during the elections on Saturday".

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In the city of Warri, in the oil-producing Delta region, militant youths burnt down polling booths set up to allow a second day of voting.

These protesters are angry about what they see as the marginalisation of their own ethnic group in the whole political process.

The current legislative elections are seen as a key gauge of civil tensions head of Saturday's presidential and gubernatorial elections.

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An estimated 10,000 people have been killed in outbreaks of ethnic, religious and political violence in the past four years.

The PDP appear to have made significant gains in the south-west, stronghold of the Alliance for Democracy.

But the PDP suffered setbacks in the north, losing key lower house seats to the ANPP in Kano State - including the defeat of the speaker of the house, Ghali Umar Na'Abba.

The PDP was challenged by more than 30 other parties in Saturday's poll.