Nigerian presidential election, 2003

Presidential elections were held in Nigeria on 19 April 2003. The result was a victory for incumbent Olusegun Obasanjo of the People's Democratic Party. Voter turnout was 69.1%.

New elections were organized for the first time for 15 years in Nigeria by a civilian government. Olusegun Obasanjo was a civilian president since 1999, after hanging up his uniform. Although he and his party were the clear favorites, he was accused of manipulating the ballot.

Millions of people voted several times. The police in Lagos uncovered an electoral fraud, finding five million false ballots.

International observers, including the European Union, determined various irregularities in 11 of the 36 Federal States. Thus in many cases votes were pre-filled or results were later amended. In some states those did not fulfill minimum standard for democratic elections.

Nearly all opposition parties refused to recognize the result. The electoral committee noted for example that in the city Warri in the Niger delta of 135,739 voters, 133,529 voted for the parliamentary election. Observers reported, however, that up to the Saturday afternoon no elections and only some polling stations had opened. Also the counting time very long compared with other countries pointed according to observers on possible electoral fraud.

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