Commonwealth delighted with turnout

Commonwealth Secretary-General Emeka Anyaoku expressed satisfaction today with the conduct of the local government elections in Nigeria based on reports from its electoral team in Nigeria, a Commonwealth press release received by IRIN said. Anyaoku said he was delighted by the “turnout” which reflected the desire of the Nigerian people to achieve the transition. He also commended INEC for working closely with political parties to facilitate an inclusive and transparent electoral process. A 17-member strong team from the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Commonwealth Local Government Forum was present in Nigeria for elections. In a related development, the Transition Monitoring Group (TMG), a Nigerian human rights group, said elections were “credible” in spite of a series of violent incidents and attempts at voter fraud, AFP reported today. The Group said the voter turnout was reasonably “impressive compared with the turnout in elections in the recent past”.