Two parties considering alliance

The radical Alliance for Democracy (AD) and the centre-right All Peoples Party (APP) are considering forming an alliance to take on the leading Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in February’s presidential elections, news agencies said. AFP said the two parties were holding separate meetings yesterday in Abuja to discuss the alliance proposal. The discussions could lead to the AD and APP fielding a single candidate for president next month, AFP said. The AD won six governorships in Saturday’s state-level elections and the APP won nine states, news agencies said. The centre-left PDP won the governorships in 20 states, but electoral officials have ordered a partial re-run in one of those states, Rivers, due to “inconclusive” results, news agencies said.

Meanwhile, the US Carter Center and National Democratic Institute praised improvements observed in the electoral process since December’s local government polls, news agencies said. Monitors from the two groups observed Saturday’s voting in eight states and visited over 100 polling stations, AFP said.

46 percent voter turn-out

Some 24.6 million people voted in Saturday’s elections, representing a turnout of 46 percent, news agencies said yesterday. Citing figures provided by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), they said the turnout was close to that of last month’s polls. “The elections were very largely free and fair and the results acceptable to the generality of Nigerians,” AFP quoted INEC chairman Ephraim Akpata as saying yesterday. However, Reuters quoted INEC officials as acknowledging that up to 20 million voting cards may not have been issued to genuine voters.