Incumbent wins re-election in Nigerian presidential race

LAGOS, Nigeria -- Incumbent Olusegun Obasanjo won an overwhelming victory in Nigeria's presidential election, officials announced Tuesday, but the main opposition party rejected the result as fraudulent and threatened massive protests.

Obasanjo moved quickly to build goodwill following an election marked by sporadic violence and allegations of polling misconduct, urging the opposition in a nationally televised address to accept his victory peacefully.

"Good politicians should be really good sportsmen, showing magnanimity and humility in victory and gallantry and good-naturedness in defeat," the former military ruler said.

The election for president and 36 governors was the biggest test for democracy and stability since Obasanjo was elected four years ago, ending 15 years of brutal military rule in Africa's most populous nation and the fifth largest oil exporter to the United States.

Obasanjo won 62 percent of the more than 42 million votes cast in the weekend polling, election commission chairman Abel Guobadia said.

Former junta leader Muhammadu Buhari, was far back with 32 percent. Eighteen other candidates split the other votes. More than 2.5 million votes were declared invalid.

Don Etiebet, chairman of Buhari's party, stormed into the election commission headquarters shortly before the winner was announced and said is party rejected the results.

He warned that opposition supporters "will act appropriately according to human nature."

"We do not need to tell the people what to do. They will know what to do when their mandate has been trampled upon," he said, without elaborating.

Nigeria has never seen a civilian government successfully hand over power to another. Though it is one of the world's largest oil exporters, it is desperately poor and has a history of coups and unrest.

There was only muted initial reaction to Obasanjo's win, and no immediate sign of public celebrations or protests in Nigerian cities, many of which were being heavily patrolled by police and army troops.

International monitors expressed concern about many reports of poll irregularities, including vote fraud, ballot-box stuffing and bribery.

The U.S. State Department said that widespread claims of electoral misconduct appeared to be credible.

"We urge all parties with complaints of electoral malfeasance to present their evidence to the competent tribunals and for the tribunals the consider those complaints in a fair and transparent manner," spokesman Richard Boucher said.

Obasanjo first came to power through the military in 1976, after his own predecessor in the ruling junta was killed in a coup attempt. He stepped down three years later. Years after that, he served three years as a political prisoner after then-junta dictator Gen. Sani Abacha jailed him for allegedly plotting to overthrow him. When Abacha died of apparent heart failure in 1998, Obasanjo was freed.

Trading his military uniform for traditional robes, he ran for election in 1999 and won.

His rule has brought limited improvement in individual and press freedoms. Yet the economy has stagnated, and critics say he has done little to fight poverty and corruption. Since he took power, 10,000 people have been killed in religious, political and ethnic fighting, including hundreds massacred by army troops.

In the balloting, foreign and local election observers charged widespread vote fraud in some states in the south and east of Nigeria.

Max Van den Berg, the European Union's chief election observer, said his group's monitors witnessed ballot box stuffing and other "widespread election fraud" in six Nigerian states, including several in the restive southern swamps.

Van den Berg, however, warned that if Nigerian authorities don't investigate, "then the democratic process is in trouble."

The vote was also marred by violence. Since an April 12 legislative vote, at least 35 people have died in election-related attacks.

Eight people were killed and homes were burned Saturday during a gunfight between soldiers and opposition supporters in the central town of Kwande, police said. Three others died Monday in a clash in Kwara state capital, Ilorin.

Armed men also shot dead five people traveling in a convoy carrying the president's daughter, Iyabo Obasanjo. She was unhurt in the attack near the village of Igbogun, 35 miles from the commercial capital of Lagos, a presidential spokesman said.