Nasidi Adamu Yahaya and Charles Onunaiju
24 April 2007
Abuja — The international community has slammed the elections yesterday, calling them among the worst the world has ever seen.
In strongly worded statements, delegations from the European Union, the Economic Community of West African States and the United States' National Democratic Institute said the elections were not credible.
In Washington the U.S. state department said it was "deeply troubled" by reports of violence and vote rigging.
At a news conference held at the ECOWAS secretariat in Abuja, former president of Gambia, Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara said the ECOWAS identified problems at all stages of the election. He said: "Irregularities and the sporadic violence chara-cterised and challenged the validity of the elections."
Madeline Albright, the former U.S. Secretary of State said the polls "failed the Nigerian People." The result was a "step backwards" for Nigerian democracy, she said.
Chief EU observer Max van den Berg said he was "bitterly disappointed" by the elections and that they had released "their toughest ever statement about an election", a diplomatic way of saying they are the worst the EU has seen.
But observers stopped short of calling for a re-run of the elections or asking the international community to sanction the government. "EU states must work with Nigeria, rather than turn our backs and say 'bye bye'," Mr Berg said.
In the U.S, a White House national security spokesman said: "We had urged free and fair elections, and I'm not sure that is exactly what the people of Nigeria got."
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said that while Washington was still awaiting assessments from U.S. and other international monitors who observed the elections, it was already evident the vote was marred by irregularities.
"Clearly these were flawed elections, I think that even the initial reports would give people confidence in saying that," McCormack said.
But president-elect Umar Musa Yar'Adua said yesterday: "I believe that is an opinion that is not based on fact. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. Some others believe that this is the best election the country has ever had. These statements need to be seen in the context of Nigeria's past elections. To compare it to past American elections would be unfair."
INEC chief Maurice Iwu said he gave the election a "pass mark". He acknowledged there had been some "irregularities", but said the election was "80 per cent successful". But Mr Berg said INEC had recorded results that didn't make sense mathematically. He called them "magical results".
Mrs Albright urged Nigerians to go to the courts. She said: "Nigerians should hurry to the courts and use this five week period to effect what they can. Nigerians should exhaust all the legal processes at this stage."
The NDI and the EU delegations said the Nigerian people needed to take steps to correct the situation.
Mr Berg, who observed elections in Nigeria in 2003, blamed INEC and the presidency for the flawed election. He said: "These elections were marred by poor organisation, lack of essential transparency, widespread procedural irregularities, and significant evidence of fraud and lack of equal conditions for contestants." He accused the presidency of manipulating Independent National Electoral Commission by holding on to its power of appointing commissioners.
He said: "In 78 per cent of polling stations observed during the opening essential polling materials were missing especially polling booths and ballot papers. A number of elections could not be held since INEC did not print and provide the correct ballots," he said.
Mr. Berg explained that presidential ballot papers were without serial numbers and insufficient qualities were delivered in many parts of the country. "In eastern Benue state no presidential ballot paper were delivered and in Ebonyi and Abia states presiding officers only received 46 per cent of the required number", he said.
In order for citizens of Nigeria to have trust and confidence in the political and electoral process, "urgent remedial action" was needed, he said.
The National Democratic Institute [NDI] recommended comprehensive results for each polling unit be released by INEC and published, to allow people to know the true nature of their election. Mrs Albright said: "The inability to track election results from the polling station to a national level is a major weakness."
Every act of intimidation and electoral violence should be investigated and prosecuted the organisation said.
At a press conference in Abuja the NDI said there were incidents of improper conduct by security agents, stuffing and snatching of ballot boxes, intimidation by party agents and vote buying.
Mrs Albright said: "In all of the elections that NDI has observed in every region of the world, such a delay in the delivery of essential electoral material and in the opening of polling sites is unprecedented." They said in many places the electoral process failed the Nigerian people and compromised the integrity of the government.
They also urged election tribunals, contesting parties and INEC to cooperate in order to ensure the speedy judicial resolution of complaints, paying attention to their responsibility to give voice to Nigerian voters and address issues which adversely affected Nigerians.
ECOWAS had 200 observers in the country, the EU had 150 in its mission, the NDI deployed 61. None of the missions sent observers to the Niger Delta region.
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