[ 2011-04-18 ]

Goodluck Jonathan will keep his job

Goodluck Jonathan 'to win outright'
Goodluck Jonathan is set for election as Nigeria's
president with almost double the vote of his main
rival, partial results suggest.

Figures provided by regional officials suggest he
has garnered enough votes to avoid a run-off.

A BBC correspondent says there is a sense of
relief and jubilation that the vote and count have
been relatively calm, unlike in past years.

However, some results in individual states have
been suspiciously high.

Mr Jonathan had staked his reputation on the
election, repeatedly promising it would be free
and fair.

Unless the national electoral commission declares
a large chunk of the votes to be invalid, he is
now on track to become Nigeria's first elected
president from the oil-producing Niger Delta
region.

The Christian politician was appointed to the
presidency last year, upon the death of incumbent
Umaru Yar'Adua, whom he had served as
vice-president.

'99.63%'

To win at the first round, a candidate needs at
least 25% of the vote in two-thirds of Nigeria's
36 states.

According to regional results, Mr Jonathan has
passed that threshold in at least 24 states. He
polled 20.3m votes to the 10.4m cast for his
nearest rival, General Muhammadu Buhari.

In Akwa Ibom state, he was credited with winning
95% percent and in Anambra it was 99%. In his home
state, Bayelsa, he took 99.63%.

"Figures of 95% and above for one party suggest
that these are fabricated figures and, personally,
they worry me because they pose serious questions
on the credibility of the election," Jibrin
Ibrahim of the Centre for Democracy and
Development told AFP news agency.

Former government minister Nasir el-Rufai, a
supporter of Gen Buhari, told Reuters: "In most of
the south-east and south-south, no real elections
took place.

"In the south-west and the north, the results have
no relation to what happened at the polling units
and we will prove it in due course."

A spokesman for the general, Yinka Odumakin, also
said irregularities had taken place but any
challenge would come after the vote count.

Mr Jonathan's campaign team have said they will
not publicly comment until the election commission
has formally declared all the results in the
capital Abuja, an announcement expected later on
Monday.

"This is no time for triumphalism," Oronto
Douglas, a senior adviser to Mr Jonathan, told
Reuters news agency.

"It is a time for deep reflection, for
strengthening the bond of our union and for all of
us to work together."
'True democracy'

Previous polls were marred by widespread violence
and vote-fixing but Saturday's election was
reported to have generally gone smoothly, after
violence in the run-up left dozens of people
dead.

A woman is said to have been killed in the central
city of Jos on polling day and two bomb explosions
hit the north-eastern city of Maiduguri.

Casting his vote in Bayelsa, Niger Delta, Mr
Jonathan said the election was a "new dawn in
Nigeria's political evolution".

"Nigeria is now experiencing true democracy where
we the politicians have to go to the people," he
added.

In Daura, home to Gen Buhari, crowds waited for
hours despite the intense heat to cast their
votes.

The general predicted the ruling party would try
to rig the election in a "sophisticated way", he
told the BBC.

But he added that he had more faith in the
national electoral commission this time round,
adding that "probably 60% of the election" would
be credible.

Other challengers for the presidency included
former anti-corruption chief Nuhu Ribadu and Kano
state governor Ibrahim Shekarau.

Source - BBC

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