Nigeria Opposition Parties May Gain in Legislative Election After Violence

By Elisha Bala-Gbogbo and Dulue Mbachu
Apr 2, 2011 11:24 AM GMT


Nigerian voting centers opened for elections today to choose members of the National Assembly in the first of a three-stage general election in Africa’s top oil producer after a campaign marred by violence.

Electoral materials arrived late in many parts of the country, according to reports from around the country published on the website of ReclaimNaija, a coalition of civil societies monitoring the elections.

Voters started lining up at polling centers across the continent’s most populous country at 8 a.m. local time for the vote in which 109 seats in the Senate and 360 in the House of Representatives are at stake, the Independent National Electoral Commission said in an e-mailed statement.

The main opposition parties, Action Congress of Nigeria and the Congress for Progressive Change, aim to cut the majority the People’s Democratic Party won in both houses four years ago by saying it has failed to reduce poverty, corruption and violence. Vote results are due within 48 hours.
Poverty Worsens

“What’s happened since 2007 is the emergence of two stronger opposition parties, the ACN and the CPC, that could cause a weakening of the ruling party,” said Clement Nwankwo, executive director of the Abuja-based Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre, which tracks parliamentary activities.


More than 50 people have died in election-related violence since July, according to Amnesty International, while sectarian clashes in the north have claimed the lives of at least 200 since Dec. 24. In a March 3 attack, at least 10 people died when explosives were hurled at a rally of President Goodluck Jonathan’s PDP in the town of Suleja.

Nigeria is the fifth-largest source of U.S. oil imports. Hague-based Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA), Irving, Texas- based Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM), Chevron Corp. (CVX) of San Ramon, California, Total SA (FP) of France and Italy’s Eni SpA (ENI) run joint ventures with the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. that pump more than 90 percent of the West African nation’s oil.
‘Elections Without Violence’

Since Nigeria’s return to civilian government in 1999 after 15 years of military rule, the PDP has presided over the spending of more than $300 billion in oil export revenue. During that time income disparities have widened, with 54 percent of the population living on less than a dollar a day, about 22 million citizens illiterate, and maternal mortality of 800 per 100,000 live births, a rate among the highest in the world, according to the United Nations Development Programme.

The vote is a prelude to the presidential contest next week that pits Jonathan against 18 rivals, including former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari and the ex-head of the anti-graft agency, Nuhu Ribadu, who is the candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria. A week after that, voters choose the governors and legislatures of Nigeria’s 36 states.

Accreditation of 73.5 million registered voters is expected to start at 8 a.m. and close by noon in the 120,000 polling stations, according to electoral commission spokesman Kayode Idowu. Results will be announced at each voting place, he said.
‘Smooth Transition’

“We are very confident that the security agencies are sufficiently mobilized to ensure that there is security for both INEC personnel and materials, and for those who will come out to exercise their right to vote,” the head of the electoral commission, Attahiru Jega, told reporters yesterday in Abuja.

The concern about sectarian and election-related violence has sparked domestic demand for foreign currency, central bank Governor Lamido Sanusi said in a March 15 interview in Abuja. That has weakened the naira, which reached an 18-month low against the dollar on March 17.

“People want to see a smooth transition, a free and fair election before they bring back the money,” he said.

While an armed insurgency in the Niger River delta that cut more than 28 percent of the nation’s oil output from 2006 to 2009 remains relatively quiet, parts of the north have been hit by a mounting campaign of violence by Islamic militants inspired by Afghanistan’s Taliban movement.
Election Violence

Elections in 2003 and 2007 were marred by violence, voter intimidation and the stuffing of ballot boxes.

Jonathan pledged a more transparent vote this year and won plaudits by appointing Jega, a respected academic, to head the electoral commission.

“The hope of a generation and the eyes of the world are on us,” Jega said. “Let us all, in the name of God Almighty, ensure free, fair and credible elections.”


http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-01/nigeria-starts-parliament-vote-after-campaign-marred-by-violence.html

GEJ will still win though.