Nigeria’s chaotic presidential and parliamentary elections began on Saturday with a failed attempt to blow up the country’s election headquarters using a petrol tanker as a bomb, and then descended into farce with the stuffing of ballot boxes on behalf of the ruling party. There was also a severe shortage of voting papers in some opposition strongholds.
Troops shot dead three boys, aged from 11 to 17, during a protest against rigging in northern Nigeria. Several police officers were killed in an attack on election officials delivering ballot boxes near the capital, Abuja.
Election observers and reporters witnessed the blatant stuffing of ballot boxes at some polling stations, further undermining the credibility of an election that many of Nigeria’s 60-million registered voters viewed with suspicion before the polls even opened.
Foreign election observers said they would reserve making a formal judgment until after the ballots were counted, but privately a number said they believed the election was deeply flawed, although it was too early to judge the final impact of the rigging.
Opposition parties have accused the government of mobilising the resources of the state in favour of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Umaru Yar’Adua. He is expected to win but his main opponents, the former military ruler, Muhammadu Buhari, and Nigerian present vice-president Atiku Abubakar say that if he does they will launch a legal challenge to prevent him being inaugurated next month.
Buhari also said that if Yar’Adua is declared the winner, opposition voters will not accept the result.
“It is likely we will call our supporters as from Monday to come out and protest if the PDP announce they have won the election,” he said. “It is not a question of winning because I don’t think there have been elections.”
The outgoing President, Olusegun Obasanjo, denied the vote was rigged. “I want to assure Nigerians that this government is a law-abiding government. This government has no reason to tamper with election results,” he said after voting.
An attempt to blow up the national electoral commission headquarters in Abuja on Saturday failed when the attackers rolled the petrol tanker toward the building, but it hit a telephone pole and the detonators failed to explode. It is not known who was responsible.
On Friday evening, armed men in the volatile Niger Delta stormed the offices of the ruling PDP candidate for vice-president, Goodluck Jonathan, in what police said was an assassination attempt. He escaped but two election workers were killed.
The commission chairperson, Maurice Iwu, described the attacks as acts by “desperate Nigerians who are only interested in dragging our country back to a situation of chaos”.
The election is the first since independence in 1960 in which one elected leader will pass power to another.
In opposition strongholds in northern and eastern Nigeria, including Katsina, Kano and Enugu, a shortage of ballot papers left many people unable to vote.
In Kano, armed men with swords and guns stole ballot boxes full of votes.
In opposition areas of Lagos, some polling stations had no voters at all for much of the day because electoral commission officials said they had been told to move the booths.
Neither was the voting in secret at many stations. People were obliged to mark their ballot with a thumb print in front of a police officer. Asked why a police officer was holding the ballot paper as a man voted on a Lagos street, an official said she was there to “help him”.
“She’s there so she can direct him so he doesn’t make a mistake,” said the official. The police officer said she was “neutral” and there to stop “party people” interfering with how people vote.
An opposition supporter, Ibrahim Elbokaway, said he was not bothered by the lack of secrecy: “I do not care if people know. I don’t think most Nigerians will be scared by the police. They will vote how they want.” — Guardian Unlimited Â