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| Africa Subsaharan |
| Yar'Adua wins Nigeria election |
| 2007-04-26 |
| Umaru Yar'Adua of Nigeria's ruling party was declared winner on Monday of a presidential poll rejected by the opposition and condemned by observers as a "charade". The vote for the first handover of power from one civilian leader to another in Africa's most populous nation and top oil producer was undermined by violence, ballot-stuffing and millions of missing voting papers on Saturday. Electoral chief Maurice Iwu declared Yar'Adua of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) winner with 24,6-million votes, far ahead of his closest rival, former army strongman Muhammadu Buhari with 6,6-million. Buhari said he would not accept the result and called on Parliament to impeach President Olusegun Obasanjo. Yar'Adua said he was "greatly humbled" by the result, but observers said it lacked credibility. "These elections have not lived up to the hopes and expectations of the Nigerian people and the process cannot be considered to have been credible," said Max van den Berg, leader of 150 observers from the European Union. The United States said the election was flawed but stopped short of calling for it to be overturned. |
| Posted by:Fred |