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Last Updated: Wednesday, 16 April, 2003, 11:02 GMT 12:02 UK
High stakes for Nigerian poll

By Joseph Winter
BBC News Online, Abuja, Nigeria

With most of the results in from last Saturday's legislative elections, President Olusegun Obasanjo should be feeling pretty confident of victory in this weekend's presidential poll.

President Obasanjo (in glasses)
President Obasanjo will now expect to win
However, the rejection of the results by almost all the opposition parties means he cannot sleep completely easy in his bed.

Mr Obasanjo's People's Democratic Party (PDP) has won around twice as many seats as its nearest challenger, the All Nigeria People's Party (ANPP).

In contrast, the ANPP's presidential candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, must be desperately thinking of how he can turn around these results in just a few days.

But the ANPP has said that the PDP achieved its huge victory through equally enormous rigging.

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Onyeriri Tochukwu S, Nigeria

There has been some violence caused by youths protesting at perceived electoral malpractices but not on the scale that had been feared.

However, almost as soon as the legislative voting ended, the minds of politicians turned to the far weightier matters of the presidential and state governor elections and they had little time to stir up trouble.

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If enough people feel that the result of the presidential election does not accurately reflect the popular will and disappointed politicians fan the flames of their anger, chaos could ensue.

Man casts his vote

Furthermore, the presidential poll divides Nigeria along one of its most bitter fault-lines - religion.

Mr Buhari is a Muslim, who has backed the introduction of harsh Sharia punishments in northern states, while Mr Obasanjo is a born-again Christian.

This divide was confirmed by the results of the legislative elections. The ANPP won most seats in the largely Muslim north, while the PDP gained most of its seats in the mainly Christian south.

In the 1999 election which brought Mr Obasanjo to power, he got most of his votes from the north.

Judging from the legislative results, he has lost the backing of northerners but gained the support of the south-west, his home area, which shunned him last time round.

Some Muslims preachers in the divided and volatile city of Kaduna have used Friday prayers to urge the faithful to vote for Mr Buhari.

Since the introduction of Sharia law, thousands of people have been killed in fighting between Muslims and Christians in Nigeria and the prospect of more religious violence is a chilling one.

Rigging?

International observers have been divided over the transparency of the legislative elections. The African Union has said everything was above board, while the United States-based National Democratic Institute has urged that "fundamental flaws" be remedied if the presidential poll is to be credible.

Poll queue in Lagos
Opposition aprties allege rigging and violence
The voting I witnessed in Port Harcourt was certainly flawed, with long delays, little secrecy and some violence.

As voted started about four hours late, I was astonished that when the results were announced, some 95% of registered voters had managed to cast their ballots.

I was also surprised to hear that the PDP had won a landslide, with about 95% of the vote in a state which had been seen as divided between the PDP and the ANPP.

Many of the voters I spoke to certainly seemed in favour of change at the top.

Few Nigerians seem to have much confidence in the transparency of the elections or the competence of the political classes.

One man told me that because Nigerian politics was so violent and corrupt, the truly capable and honest people stayed away, leaving only a choice between different "hooligans".

This raises the prospect of one group of "hooligans" rigging the election, to be followed by violent protests from another group of "hooligans".

Nigerians will be hoping that come next weekend, the civilian politicians spring a pleasant surprise and organise a successful election for the first time in 20 years.




NIGERIA'S ELECTION

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