Obasanjo takes commanding lead in presidential ballot

With results of Saturday's presidential elections released in more than half of Nigeria's 36 states, incumbent President Olusegun Obasanjo has established a commanding lead over his closest rival, Muhammadu Buhari. Results on Monday from 21 states showed Obasanjo with 13.64 million votes - about 66 percent - compared to 5.62 million - some 27 percent - for Buhari. The remaining votes, seven percent, were shared by 18 other opposition candidates. Saturday's polls also included elections for the post of state governor. Most of the state governorships declared so far have been won by the ruling party, which has made inroads into former opposition strongholds, particularly in the southwest. However, most opposition parties have protested against the results, alleging massive rigging by the ruling party through the use of government machinery. "What we have seen is no election," Uche Ezechukwu, spokesman for the main opposition All Nigeria People's Party (ANPP) told IRIN. "We have a situation where people express their will one way and it is rewritten another way by the government and electoral officials." Saturday's election was generally peaceful in most parts of the West African country of 120 million people, including some 61 million registered voters. However, isolated incidents were reported in different parts of the country, including the snatching of ballot boxes and voting materials by political thugs. In Bayelsa State in the southern Nigeria's oil-producing Niger Delta, six youths were reportedly shot dead by policemen after they resisted orders to leave a polling station. "As far as we are concerned there has been no rigging," Abel Guobadia, chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), told reporters in the capital, Abuja, on Sunday. He said votes would be voided in areas where it was confirmed that ballot boxes had been snatched and election materials tampered with. However, election observers have expressed concern about statistics released by INEC last week for legislative elections on 12 April which showed huge turnouts in some places where the poll was boycotted. The electoral commission reported a 98-percent turnout in parts of the Niger Delta, where militants from the Ijaw ethnic group had boycotted the polls. In Saturday's governorship vote in another southern area, Rivers State, won by the ruling People's Democratic Party candidate, the commission reported a 96-percent turnout despite a boycott by the main opposition party. Monitors of the Catholic Justice, Peace and Development Commission, which has the largest number of election observers in the country - 30,000 - have accused INEC of not reflecting voting trends observed at polling centres in the final results it announced. Observers of the International Republican Institute of the United States have also queried "discrepancies" in INEC's figures. Police and troops have been deployed across major cities in Nigeria to prevent anticipated violence after the ANPP last week urged "mass action" by its supporters if they thought the vote had been rigged.