Troops have intercepted a truck-load of already completed ballots the day before Nigeria’s presidential election, the opposition said on Friday, heightening fears the vote will be rigged.
The accusation followed widespread abuses and violence in regional elections last week which handed the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) a landslide and prompted opposition parties to declare no confidence in the electoral commission.
”Soldiers in Kaduna have intercepted a truck-load of ballot papers, all already thumb-printed for the PDP ahead of Saturday’s elections,” said Lai Mohammed of the opposition Action Congress, adding that the ballots were being held at a barracks in the town of Kawo, in northern Kaduna state.
Spokespersons for the military and the electoral commission said they had no information.
The election is intended to mark a big step forward for democracy in Africa’s most populous nation, ushering in the first handover from one elected president to another in a country scarred by three decades of military government.
But observers witnessed every form of rigging at the regional poll last Saturday, and said many of the results did not reflect the will of the people.
In a nationwide address on Friday, President Olusegun Obasanjo conceded the first election was flawed, but told aggrieved losers to seek redress through the legal system.
The former military ruler said there was no alternative to democracy, which returned to Nigeria in 1999.
”Let us continue to improve on the structure and the house rather than pull it down because it is leaking in part.”
Oil prices rise
Oil prices rose on Friday because of dealers’ fears that a sham vote could further disrupt supplies from the world’s eighth largest exporter.
Militant attacks on Western oil facilities in the southern oil heartland have already curbed output by a fifth.
At least 50 people died in violence surrounding Saturday’s election, and troops killed 25 Islamic militants in northern Kano state on Wednesday after they attacked a police station and killed 13 officers.
The PDP was declared winner in 27 of 34 states, but election observers said results in 10 states should be rejected.
Obasanjo called on observers to understand Nigeria’s limitations and not to ”exaggerate the negative”.
He said the West African giant had made progress since independence from Britain nearly 50 years ago.
Leading opposition candidate Muhammadu Buhari, of the All Nigeria People’s Party, called last Saturday’s vote the worst in Nigerian history, while Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, standing for Action Congress, said it was ”worse than a robbery”.
Both candidates had called for a delay in the presidential poll, demanding the replacement of the electoral commission and a cancellation of last week’s results.
But Obasanjo said the vote would go ahead and the opposition leaders have confirmed they will take part.
The PDP has fielded a little-known state governor, Umaru Yar’Adua, as its candidate.
The opposition calls him a puppet and critics say Obasanjo wants to dominate from behind the scenes after being obliged to step down when he failed to alter the constitution to allow a third term. – Reuters 2007