2007 Nigerian general election

Following the presidential election, groups monitoring the election gave it a dismal assessment. Chief European Union observer Max van den Berg reported that the handling of the polls had "fallen far short" of basic international standards, and that "the process cannot be considered to be credible",[24] citing "poor election organisation, lack of transparency, significant evidence of fraud, voter disenfranchisement, violence and bias."[25] They described the election as "the worst they had ever seen anywhere in the world", with "rampant vote rigging, violence, theft of ballot boxes and intimidation".[6] One group of observers said that at one polling station in Yenagoa, in the oil-rich south, where 500 people were registered to vote, more than 2,000 votes were counted.[26]

Felix Alaba Job, head of the Catholic Bishops Conference, cited massive fraud and disorganisation, including result sheets being passed around to politicians who simply filled in numbers as they chose while bribed returning electoral officers looked away.[27]

Number of votes per candidate

Official figures on voter turnout were not released but the turnout was estimated at 57.5 percent of 61.5 million registered voters.[28]

The first results to be released, from Rivers State, showed a large majority for Yar'Adua.[29][26] On April 23, Yar'Adua was declared the winner by INEC, which said that he had received 70% of the vote[30] (24,638,063 votes).[31] Buhari was in second place with 18% of the vote[30] (6,605,299 votes),[31] while Abubakar was placed third with about 7%[30] (2,637,848 votes).[31] Both Buhari and Abubakar rejected the results. The opposition candidates believe the election was rigged in Yar'Adua's favor.[30]

Outgoing president Olusegun Obasanjo stated in a televised address that the election "could not be described as perfect".[30][25]

Results, announced by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman Prof. Maurice Iwu, were:[32] The results did not disclose the total votes scored in the states or the percentages of the scores by the presidential candidates.

• Bayelsa State
• Federal Capital Territory
• Kwara State
• Nasarawa State
• Taraba State

After the death of Chief M.K.O Abiola, the ruling PDP won 26 of the 32 states, according to INEC, including Kaduna State and Katsina State, where the results were contested by the local population; the election will have to be rerun in Imo State and Enugu State due to complications.[33] By the last count, Obasanjo's PDP party had won 29 of 33 states so far declared, with Human Rights Watch describing the vote-rigging as "shameless".[34]

Ikimi and Amusu, the representatives of the AC and the ANPP at the INEC Collation Centre in Abuja, denounced the results announced by the INEC Chairman. According to Ikimi, "In states like Edo, Enugu, Ebonyi, Imo, Akwa Ibom etc., we know that the elections did not start even as late as 5 pm. The results collated showed that over 80 percent of the votes being counted in favour of the PDP and they are totally flawed.[35] In most of the states, only the Resident Electoral Commissioners and the PDP Agents signed the results. We have been here since yesterday (Sunday) to observe this collation and we only collated eleven states and the INEC Chairman just rushed down to declare the results and declare Umaru Yar’Adua as the winner."[32]

According to Ikimi, "The result sheets we viewed so far was not signed by any of our agents at the state level. They were only signed by Resident Electoral Commissioners and only the PDP agents."[32]

Also, Admiral Lanre Amusu who represented the ANPP at the INEC collation centre concurred what Chief Tom Ikimi said. "I am in total agreement with what Chief Ikimi has just said. Only results from 13 states and they were collated and signed by the Resident Electoral Commissioners in the States and the PDP Agents. Our agents did not sign these results."[32]

The national chairman of the Democratic Peoples Alliance (DPA), Chief Olu Falae, with leaders of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), the Action Congress (AC), All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), National Advance Party (NAP) and the National Democratic Party (NDP), has called for the setting up of an Interim National Government to conduct credible elections in the country. Falae explained that the country needed an ING to guard against the emergence of the military on the political scene.[36]

The Atiku Abubakar Campaign Organisation claimed that the INEC deliberately left 70 percent of the ballot papers in a warehouse in Johannesburg, South Africa. They claimed that the contractors could have freighted the entire 200-ton consignment into the country three days before the election (Thursday) but the INEC told them to bring only 30 percent of the ballot papers.[37]

Nigeria's Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka said the West should deny entry visas to election commissioner Maurice Iwu for his "complicity in the fraudulent elections.[38]" He said he has heard of the financial prudence and moral uprightness of Yar'Adua. "I wish he [Yar'Adua] would carry his decency even further by publicly renouncing this poisoned chalice to say: 'I'm not a receiver of stolen goods'."[39]

A spokesman for the United States Department of State said it was "deeply troubled" by election polls, calling them "flawed", and said it hoped the political parties would resolve any differences over the election through peaceful, constitutional means.[30]

"Nigeria has once again failed to rise to the occasion.... Size isn't enough.... It is a failed giant," said prominent Ghanaian economist Nii Moi Thompson. He compared its elections to those of Liberia in 2005, saying, "Even Liberia, which is coming out of war, had more credible elections than Nigeria."[40]

"There is the saying: 'How goes Nigeria, so goes the rest of Africa', to have this widespread abuse of the democratic initiative certainly doesn't do Africa any good," said Scott Baker, a professor at Champlain College in the US city of Burlington, Vermont.[35] "How can Nigeria sit at the meetings of the African Union African Peer Review Mechanism or ECOWAS and talk about other people's elections?" he asked.[40]