International observers, commentators say results should stand

However, while acknowledging irregularities, international observers said they were insufficient to warrant cancellation of the entire elections.

“We have no proof, however, that there was a systematic attempt to rig the results at state and national level,” the European Union (EU) Observer Mission to Nigeria said in a statement sent to IRIN.

Former US president Jimmy Carter, whose Carter Center and the US National Democratic Institute of International Affairs monitored the polls, said there was a “wide disparity between the number of voters observed at the polling stations and the final result that has been reported from several states”.

“Regrettably, therefore, it is not possible for us to make an accurate judgement about the outcome of the presidential election,” he said, according to Reuters.

The executive director of the Centre for Responsive Politics, Nimi Walson-Jack, told IRIN today from Port Harcourt, southeastern Nigeria, that the irregularities were not substantial enough to annul the results.

“After 29 years of military government we will have to live with this,” he said.

In the troubled Bayelsa State, he said, communities with low populations filled empty ballot papers, more with the intent of attracting federal revenue allocations than supporting a particular candidate. Those bent on cheating, however, took advantage of such a low turnout to stuff ballots. Another problem, he added, was that influential community leaders in remote villages told people who to vote for.