Presidential elections in Nigeria 2007
The 2007 presidential election in Nigeria took place on April 21, 2007. At the national level, the president and the vice-president were elected, along with the members of the House of Representatives and the Senate. On April 14th, the parliaments and governors of the 36 states were elected. According to official figures, 24 politicians are running for the office of president, who rules for a term of four years. Umaru Yar'Adua won the presidential election with 70% of the vote and took office on May 29, 2007.
Olusegun Obasanjo , the previous Nigerian president who was re- elected in the 2003 elections in Nigeria , was banned from running after two terms. His attempt to run for a third time through a constitutional amendment failed before the Senate.
Assessment of democratic standards
The Independent National Election Commission (INEC) was responsible for the proper conduct of the elections . 500,000 polling stations should be available in 120,000 voting stations. To prevent the president from representing only one region or ethnic group, the constitution states that he must win a majority in at least 24 of the 36 states and at least 25% of the votes in the remaining states. A large number of accusations of fraud accompanied the election, there were raids on polling stations, kidnapping of election workers and mishaps such as missing ballot papers. The EU had sent a 150-member group of election observers, the head of which concluded: “The elections do not meet the hopes and expectations of the Nigerian people and do not meet basic international standards. I am very disappointed. The process cannot be called credible ”.
Presidential candidates
The parties' presidential candidates were announced in December 2006. The People's Democratic Party (PDP), the strongest party since the last election, elected Umaru Yar'Adua , the governor of the predominantly Muslim state of Katsina , as its candidate. His runner-up candidate (the so-called running mate , who runs for the office of Vice President) is Goodluck Jonathan . Since he is the governor of the state of Bayelsa in the Christian Niger Delta , the two candidates represent both the north and the south.
Atiku Abubakar's candidacy from the opposition Action Congress (AC) party was declared invalid by the electoral commission because of corruption allegations on the part of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission . Abubakar was expelled from the PDP after disputes and suspended from his position as vice president. He challenged his exclusion before the Supreme Court, which on April 3 upheld the election commission's decision. A week before the election, however, the election commission allowed him to run again.
A candidate for the All Nigeria People's Party was Muhammadu Buhari , who was president from 1983 to 1985 after a military coup and was nominated by more than 6000 delegates without an election. Another opposition party, the Alliance for Democracy (AD), originally named 79-year-old Adebayo Adefarati as a presidential candidate, but he died on March 21, 2007. The electoral commission allowed the AD to run with a new candidate.
Results
On April 23, the results were announced that Umaru Yar'Adua won the presidential election with 24.6 million or around 70% of the vote. Muhammadu Buhari received 6.2 million votes, Atiku Abubakar received 2.6 million; the remaining candidates were practically meaningless. The turnout was around half of those eligible to vote.
Sources and Notes
- ^ INEC: "Presidential Election Candidates" ( Memento of the original from April 9, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , March 20, 2007 (PDF file; 22 kB)
- ↑ Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung: “Elections in Nigeria - A Failure?” ( Memento of the original from June 21, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ The Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung therefore rated the candidates as promising: “There is a lot to suggest that the Yar'Adua / Jonathan team will win the elections” ( Memento of the original from August 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was used automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ BBC News , "Nigeria ruling on Atiku poll bid," April 3, 2007
- ↑ FAZ.NET: "Nigeria Votes - All kinds of low blows" , April 4th 2007
- ↑ BBC News: "Nigeria death fails to halt poll," March 29, 2007
- ↑ Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung: “Elections in Nigeria - A Failure?” ( Memento of the original from June 21, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
