Nigeria’s ruling party looked set to see its strong grip on parliament weakened as votes emerged on Sunday from an election that observers said was the fairest for decades in Africa’s most populous nation.
Election officials and party agents tallied results from 120,000 polling units stretching from the oil-producing mangrove swamps and teeming cities near the southern coast to the dust-blown fringes of the Sahara in the north.
There were isolated reports of ballot box snatching, clashes between rival supporters in parts of the Niger Delta and two bombs in the remote northeast during the vote, but observers said it appeared to have been a vast improvement on previous polls.
“I think it is fair to say this was a real election. It was a real vote,” said Kenneth Wollack, president of the National Democratic Institute (NDI), who had also monitored other polls since military rule ended 12 years ago.
The vote was seen as a test of whether electoral officials could organize smooth polls and make a break with a long history of elections discredited by ballot stuffing and thuggery.
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan’s ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) was losing out to the opposition Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in the southwest and the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) in parts of the north.
The ruling party nevertheless made gains in some areas.
Of those seats declared for the Nigerian House of Representatives by 7pm GMT, the ruling party had just over half compared with 77 percent in the outgoing parliament. Less than a third of the seats had been declared, however.
Speaker of the House of Representatives Dimeji Bankole of the PDP lost his seat, while the daughter of former president and PDP stalwart Olusegun Obasanjo lost her bid to remain in the Nigerian Senate.
“Nigerians have freely spoken for once,” said Emma Muogbo, a lecturer in the southeastern city of Onitsha. “Now committed people could come up to serve knowing that if they fail to do well, people could vote them out.”
The PDP was declared the winner of the two House of Representatives seats and one Senate seat in Abuja, although it was a close race in many wards and the opposition CPC questioned the outcome.
Opposition parties in Bayelsa, Jonathan’s home state in the Niger Delta, also refused to accept losses there.
“I demand that the elections be canceled with immediate effect and a new date be set,” said Imoro Kubor, governorship candidate for the ACN in the state, alleging that voting materials and results sheets had been given to PDP supporters.
“The fact we’ve done this despite all the hitches has set the mood for the biggest election in black Africa,” said Dafe Akpedeye, head of the Swift Count local monitors group.
The African giant has failed to hold a single vote deemed credible by observers since the end of military rule in 1999.
Most Nigerians say the closest the country came to a free election was in 1993, polls which were annulled by former military ruler Ibrahim Babangida, helping pave the way for another six years of military rule.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in