Nigerian presidential election, 2003

In the elections in Nigeria in April 2003, one after the other members of the Nigerian Parliament, the President and the governors of the 36 states were selected. Most votes received the People's Democratic Party, as President Olusegun Obasanjo was re-elected.

In 2003, Nigeria had a population of 122 790 463 people, of which 60,823,022 were registered to vote.

Background

New elections were organized for the first time in 15 years in Nigeria by a civilian government. Olusegun Obasanjo was civilian president since 1999. Although he and his party were the clear favorite, he was accused of manipulating the election. With unrest on 12 April, 12 people were killed.

Electoral fraud

Seven million voters had registered more than once. The police in Lagos revealed a voter fraud, in which an unknown man had printed five million counterfeit ballots.

International election observers, including the EU, presented a variety of irregularities in 11 of the 36 states. To be filled with prepared ballots or results have been subsequently revised in many cases ballot boxes. In some states the minimum standards were not met for democratic elections, they wrote in a communiqué that the EU published in Abuja.

Almost all opposition parties said they would not recognize the outcome of the election. The Election Commission, which denied a voter fraud, told for example, that in the city of Warri in the Niger Delta would have made of 135 739 133 529 voters for the general election their vote. However, election observers reported that until Saturday afternoon no elections have taken place and only a few polling stations were opened. The very long compared to other countries counting time indicated according to election observers point to possible election fraud.

Parliamentary elections

The parliamentary elections, in which the members of the Senate and House of Representatives were elected, took place on 12 April 2003. About 3,000 people stood as candidates for the 360 ​​seats in the House of Representatives and 109 Senate seats. The turnout was 49.3 and 50.0 percent.

Presidential elections

On 19 April 2003 the President and the governors of the 36 states were selected. For the Office of the President as a candidate 20 people. The Electoral Commission INEC demanded that the election winners had in two -thirds of the 774 Local Governement Areas 25 percent, to avoid that the President took only one region or ethnic group. The turnout was 69.1 percent.

The favorite was Olusegun Obasanjo. He was accused to have done contrary to his campaign promises too little against corruption, crime and poverty in Nigeria in his first term. However, positively evaluated his commitment to his numerous travels, Nigeria's negative image abroad from the period of military dictatorship has been largely eliminated. Obasanjo is a Christian Yoruba and was also supported by the AD.

His opponent with the most opportunities, Muhammadu Buhari, a Muslim from Katsina in the Muslim north. He advocates the Shari'a and advocated its extension to the whole country. From these statements, he distanced himself, since the ANPP has elected him as its candidate. Chukwuemeka Odumegwu eventually became known when he had led in the 1960s, the Biafran struggle for independence. He was almost elected by the Ibo, whose interests he represents.

The following table shows the result of the first three candidates: