Nigeria: Umaru Yar'Adua Declared Victor in Presidential Poll

23 April 2007
allAfrica.com

Nigeria's election commission has declared Umaru Yar'Adua of the ruling People's Democratic Party the winner of the presidential election, despite widespread questioning of the legitimacy of the vote.

The BBC reported today that the chairman of the Independent National Election Commission (INEC), Maurice Iwu, announced that Yar'Adua won 70 percent of the vote, a total of 24.6 million votes. His principal challengers, General Muhammadu Buhari and Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, drew 6.6 million and 2.6 million votes respectively.

But the German government, speaking in its capacity as current president of the European Union, has cast doubt on the credibility of the elections.

It said in a formal statement issued in Berlin that reports of irregularities and of the use of violence "have given rise to concerns that not all Nigerians entitled to vote really were able to do so freely and without fear."

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