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Dozens killed in Nigeria election
« on: Apr 14th, 2003, 10:28am » |
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Dozens killed in Nigeria election
Monday, April 14, 2003 Posted: 3:06 AM EDT (0706 GMT)
LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) -- The ruling party made a solid showing in Nigeria's violence-marred elections, according to partial returns.
But more than two dozen people were killed during weekend balloting, seen as an important test for democracy in the African country.
With 77 House of Representative seats decided, President's Olusegun Obasanjo's party had won 49, electoral officials said late Sunday. Some 3,000 candidates are battling for 360 seats in the House of Representatives and 109 in the Senate.
The legislative race is a key gauge of civil tensions a week ahead of presidential elections that will pit incumbent President Olusegun Obasanjo -- a former military ruler turned civilian leader -- against 19 opposition candidates, including three former army generals.
Balloting was run by civilians. In the past, military coups have scuttled Nigeria's previous attempts to hold democratic, civilian-run elections.
One election observer warned police and military to respect voters' choices.
"We are concerned that parties may try to forcibly hold on to what they could lose by the will of the people," said Festus Okoye, chairman of the Transitional Monitoring Group, which supplied 10,000 observers.
As officials counted ballots and the first results trickled in, Okoye spoke of a "clear shift in voting patterns and a realignment of forces."
Six ruling party incumbents in the northern Kano state -- including House Speaker Ghali Na'Abba -- were upset by rivals, according to early results from Nigeria's electoral commission. Some incumbent opposition members from the southwestern Ondo and Osun states were, in turn, unseated.
In many regions, Saturday's voting was peaceful, despite ballot shortages and claims of intimidation.
But fighting between tribal and political rivals disrupted the vote in Nigeria's oil-producing southern Niger Delta region for a second day Sunday. At least two dozen people were killed in the voting and hundreds forced to flee their homes, witnesses and election monitors said.
The voting was extended to Sunday in several areas where the balloting was marred, particularly the Niger Delta.
In the swampy Delta region, voting was delayed a day amid a violent boycott and allegations of stolen ballot boxes. Even so, most polls stayed closed Sunday.
The southern region has been the scene of numerous clashes in recent weeks between Ijaw militants and government troops over voting districts the Ijaws say favor their ethnic rivals, the Itsekiris. The Ijaws were determined to block polling.
More than 100 people have been killed in the violence, which has shut down 40 percent of the country's oil production. Nigeria is the fifth largest supplier of U.S. oil imports.
On Sunday, sustained automatic weapons fire delayed a second attempt to hold a vote in the oil port of Warri.
Witnesses said navy soldiers and Ijaw fighters were shooting at each other and spoke of between five and 10 people killed. Grace Akpete, a market vendor who fled the fighting, said she saw five bodies floating in the water.
The shooting died down after half an hour. By late afternoon, three elections stations had opened, but most remained closed.
"I can't understand why one tribe can hold everyone else to ransom," said Johnson Atake, an Itsekiri waiting to vote Sunday in the port city.
Elsewhere in the Niger Delta, clashes between ruling party and opposition supporters killed 10 people in the town of Nembe, sent hundreds fleeing and left dozens of homes burned, human rights official Azibaola Roberts said, citing witnesses.
In the eastern Enugu state, five people were killed Saturday in an ambush on an opposition politician, witnesses and observers said. There were also reports of deadly violence in Port Harcourt, Benin City and Onitsha.
Gangs of "government thugs" traveling in state vehicles stole ballot boxes at gunpoint, said Ifeanyi Enwerem, director of the Roman Catholic Church's Justice, Development and Peace Center. The center has deployed thousands of observers to monitor the voting.
In the northern village of Mazogi, two electoral officials and two party agents were arrested on accusations of conspiring to stuff ballots for both main parties, police said Sunday. Another 30 people were arrested for "attempting to disrupt elections" there.
Still, election commission chairman Abel Guobadia said the voting Saturday "went very well" overall despite what he called "scattered violence."
The legislative elections were the first since 1999, when the former military regime administered the polling.
Officials indicated a high turnout across the country of 126 million people. Sixty-one million voters were registered.
More than 10,000 people in Nigeria have been killed in political, ethnic and religious violence since Obasanjo was first elected in 1999, ending 15 years of brutal military rule.
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