2003 Nigerian presidential election

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, who defeated his closest opponent Muhammadu Buhari by over 11 million votes. Voter turnout was 69.1%.[1]

2003 Nigerian presidential election

19 April 2003

Nominee Olusegun Obasanjo Muhammadu Buhari Party PDP ANPP Running mate Atiku Abubakar Chuba Okadigbo States carried 25 + FCT 5 Popular vote 24,456,140 12,710,022 Percentage 61.94% 32.19%

President before election Olusegun Obasanjo PDP Elected President Olusegun Obasanjo PDP

Background

New elections were organised 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 favourites, he was accused of manipulating the ballot.

Electoral fraud

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 fulfil minimum standard for democratic elections.

Nearly all opposition parties refused to recognise 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.

Results

Candidate		Running mate	Party	Votes	%
	Olusegun Obasanjo	Atiku Abubakar	People's Democratic Party	24,456,140	61.94
	Muhammadu Buhari	Chuba Okadigbo	All Nigeria Peoples Party	12,710,022	32.19
	Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu		All Progressives Grand Alliance	1,297,445	3.29
	Jim Nwobodo		United Nigeria People's Party	169,609	0.43
	Gani Fawehinmi		National Conscience Party	161,333	0.41
	Sarah Jubril		Progressive Action Congress	157,560	0.40
	Ike Nwachukwu		National Democratic Party	132,997	0.34
	Chris Okotie		Justice Party	119,547	0.30
	Balarabe Musa		People's Redemption Party	100,765	0.26
	Arthur Nwankwo		People's Mandate Party	57,720	0.15
	Emmanuel Okereke		All People's Liberation Party	26,921	0.07
	Kalu Idika Kalu		New Nigeria People's Party	23,830	0.06
	Muhammadu Dikko Yusuf		Movement for Democracy and Justice	21,403	0.05
	Yahaya Ndu		African Renaissance Party	11,565	0.03
	Abayomi Ferreira		Democratic Alternative	6,932	0.02
	Tunji Braithwaite		Nigeria Advance Party	6,727	0.02
	Iheanyichukwu Godswill Nnaji		Better Nigeria Progressive Party	5,987	0.02
	Olapade Agoro		National Action Council	5,756	0.01
	Pere Ajuwa		Liberal Democratic Party of Nigeria	4,473	0.01
	Mojisola Adekunle-Obasanjo		Masses Movement of Nigeria	3,757	0.01
Total				39,480,489	100.00
Valid votes				39,480,489	93.96
Invalid/blank votes				2,538,246	6.04
Total votes				42,018,735	100.00
Registered voters/turnout				60,823,022	69.08
Source: African Elections Database

References

1. Elections in Nigeria African Elections Database