Nigerian president-elect Umaru Yar'Adua promised on Wednesday to review the conduct of the disputed April elections that gave him his mandate with a view to delivering better ones in Local and foreign observers said vote-rigging was so widespread that the elections were not credible, while the opposition has rejected the results. Yar'Adua has repeatedly said he believes he won fair and square. "The next administration ... will examine as a matter of urgency the last elections ... so that we will raise the standard and quality of our general elections," Yar'Adua said at a ceremony during which he received a "certificate of election".
Yar'Adua's People's Democratic Party (PDP), which has ruled Africa's most populous nation and biggest oil producer for eight years, scored a landslide victory according to official results. Yar'Adua was credited with 24,6-million votes against 6,6-million for his closest rival. The PDP won 28 out of 36 state governors' seats and an overwhelming majority in both houses of the National Assembly.
But European observers said the elections "fell far short of basic international standards" and were not credible, while the United States State Department said the process was "seriously flawed".