These just in from a friend…
Senatorial ballot paper. Note serial number.
Presidential ballot paper. Rushed out after Abubakar re-entered the race. Note no serial number.
Archive for April 23rd, 2007
This is my first blog entry for Greenlightnigeria.org, it is my anger at the outcome of this electoral fiasco that is compelling me to write now.
Like many of my compatriots I am speechless at the bare faced audacity with which this political theatre has been executed.
At least this time the international monitors and the media are calling it like they see it, unlike 2003, as flawed, unfair, rigged.
Like many people who observed this election on the street, I have reserved my judgement till the outcome.
Let there be no doubt that this was rigging on a grand scale. Rigged at the polling booth. Rigged at the count. Rigged in its announcement in Abuja. This is one small step from power for Obasanjo and his rentinue, one giant leap backwards for democracy.
Now the outcome is in no doubt what are we to do?
Nigeria is like a lunar landscape today, no oxygen, no gravity, we are stifled and in freefall.
Oil hung onto earlier gains in afternoon trade as news the EU has formally agreed to introduce sanctions against Iran added to supply fears linked to ongoing tension in Nigeria following Saturday’s presidential elections.
Uncertainty ahead of the release of EIA inventory figures later this week is also helping to buoy prices, analysts said.
At 1.12 pm, London Brent crude for June delivery was up 65 cents at 67.14 usd a barrel. Meanwhile, New York crude for June delivery was up 20 cents at 64.32 usd a barrel.
Iran’s nuclear ambitions, which have pushed prices higher in recent months, returned to the spotlight as the EU said it has formally agreed to introduce sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme in line with a UN Security Council resolution.
At 2:20 pm GMT Al Jazeera is reporting that the PDP candiate Yar’Adua has won the Presidential election on 24 million votes, the ANPP’s General Muhammadu Buhari is on 6 million and the AC’s Atiku Abubakar on 2 million.
President Obasanjo has said that the vote was “not perfect.”
We are waiting to see if the opposition choose to challenge the vote through the courts. This process could take as long as 2 years. First an Election Commission must rule, and if that decision goes in favour of the PDP then it would go to the Supreme Court.
Expecting a busy morning on the wires. Abubakar and Buhari are rejecting the result, while INEC Chief Iwu is declaring a victory for democratic process…
This from Nigeria’s ‘Punch’ this morning is a good indication of what the weeks to come have in store:
The International Republican Institute’s team of election observers has described the general election as a classic example of how the Nigerian government has failed its people.
Delivering its preliminary verdict on the governorship, state Assembly, Senate and Presidential elections at a news conference in Abuja on Sunday, the team of international observers said that the failure was systemic.
A member of the team and former United States Ambassador-at-large for War Crimes, Ambassador Pierre-Richard Prosper, said, “The system failed the Nigerian people. The process failed the test of credibility. What we are talking about is that the system as designed did not work.
“This has nothing to do with the Nigerian people. It is a case of the government failing the people.”
