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Nigeria stages rerun votes across the country
AFP
LAGOS
Petroleumworld.com 04 30 07Nigeria staged a series of by-elections across the country on Saturday in areas where flawed elections a week ago were either cancelled or annulled as a result of irregularities.
The country electoral agency INEC said it was conducting elections for the governorship post in south-eastern Imo state, 11 senatorial seats, 48 House of
Representatives and 57 State Houses of Assembly seats spread across 27 states.
"Most of the by-elections are as a result of the exclusion of the logos of certain political parties from the ballot papers and their refusal to continue with the elections," INEC spokesman Philip Umeadi told reporters.
Saturday's voting follows a first round of elections which began with gubernatorial and state assemblies polls on April 14, followed by the parliamentary and presidential polls of April 21.
Voting opened as early as eight in the morning in most polling centres in the west African country of 140 million people, but voters' apathy almost marred the exercise.
"We have had three voters since morning out of 56 expected," electoral officer Stella Nwoke told AFP, a few minutes before voting ended in the Obalende district in Lagos.
Similar low turnout was also recorded in southwest towns of Abeokuta, Sagamu Ilorin, Owerri and northern town of Kaduna.
"People are no longer enthusiastic about the election because of the massive rigging that followed previous polls," labour leader Dele Dada told AFP.
The ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) won a landslide victory, clinching a majority of the parliamentary and governorships in the 36 states of federation.
The party's candidate and outgoing President Olusegun Obasanjo's annointed successor Umar Musa Yar'Adua also won the April 21 presidential poll.
In Lagos on Saturday, the economic hub of the world's sixth-biggest oil exporter, rescheduled elections were held in two out of the three senatorial districts amid a heavy military and police presence.
Road check points were mounted by security agents as motorists and passersby were screened.
"We want to ensure that no-one carries an offensive weapon like guns, knives and cutlasses to the election venue," a senior military officer told AFP.
The Nigerian polls in which 200 people died have been heavily criticised by the US and EU as the worst in the African nation's recent history.
The opposition parties and civil society groups have called for the cancellation of the vote, even threatening not recognise a government formed from it.
A coalition of opposition parties and some civil society organsations have organised peaceful protests for May 1.
AFP 28 1432 GMT 04 07
Copyright© 2007 AFP. All Rights Reserved.
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