Obasanjo’s party widens lead in council polls dogged by malpractices

The ruling People’s Democratic Party widened its lead in Nigeria’s local elections as more results were published on Tuesday as allegations of rigging and malpractice abounded. “The results have confirmed the fears of the people that this is a selection and not an election,” said the statement signed by Patrick Eyinla, coordinator of the Catholic Church’s Justice, Development and Peace Commission (JDPC). According to official returns, the ruling PDP gained control of most of the councils in 25 of the 30 states to have published results. The main opposition All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP) remained a distant second having won a majority of councils in only four states. It was followed in third place by the Alliance for Democracy (AD), which swept all the councils in Lagos State in Saturday’s vote. All the results released show a pattern of parties sweeping the board in states they already govern and where they were also responsible for appointing the electoral officials. The Transition Monitoring Group (TMG), a coalition of civil rights organisations, which deployed 5,000 monitors nationwide during the poll, echoed the JDPC’s allegations of massive fraud. TMG chairman Festus Okoye said: “It is doubtful, given the substantial flaws…and the level of irregularities observed on election day, that the elections can in any way be considered to be reflective of the will of the people.” Among the 30 smaller Nigerian registered parties that do not control any of the state governments, only the United Nigeria People’s Party managed to win control of a single local government council. That was in Abia State in the southeast of the country. Local observer groups have questioned the validity of the entire exercise, saying it was riddled with malpractices and with violence. Unidentified gunmen raided the offices of the Delta State electoral commission in the capital, Asaba, on Monday forcing the officials to flee and suspend the announcement of results. “When security has been restored and we are sure of our safety, we will resume release of the remaining results,” Tony Tebekaerin, commission spokesman, told reporters. At least 17 people were killed on election day violence across Africa’s most populous country of more than 120 million people, despite the large-scale deployment of police and troops to maintain order. Election results have been cancelled in some local council areas in the northern states of Kano, Kaduna, and Borno and in Abia and Cross River in the south. In all these cases the authorities cited actual or threatened security problems. However, the Catholic church’s JDPC, which had 10,000 election monitors on the ground, said some state governors simply annulled the election in districts where the opposition seemed to be on the verge of victory. Voter apathy was another major problem. The JDPC blamed the low turnout on the electorate’s disenchantment with Nigeria’s electoral system. It estimated that less than 10% of registered voters bothered to cast a ballot. The monitoring group said turn out was particularly low because “gross electoral malpractices” observed in the 2003 presidential, parliamentary and state assembly elections had not been redressed.