Goodluck Jonathan declared winner of Nigeria presidential election

[News_Editor]

Goodluck Jonathan declared winner of Nigeria presidential election

2011-04-19 04:58:33 GMT+7 (ICT)

ABUJA, NIGERIA (BNO NEWS) -- Nigeria's Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Jega, on Monday declared President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the winner of the presidential election, which was held last Saturday.

According to the INEC, Jonathan received 57 percent of the votes, or 22,495,187 votes out of a total valid votes cast of 38,209,978, while Alhaji Muhammadu Buhari of the Congress for Progressive Change gathered 12,214,853 votes. In third place, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu of the Action Congress of Nigeria received 2,079,151 votes.

Jega made the announcement on Monday evening, at around 8:30 p.m. local time, adding that Jonathan won at least 25 percent of the voting in at least two thirds of Nigeria's 36 states, which is a constitutional requirement for a presidential winner.

Jonathan, 53, of Ogbia, Nigeria, had been handed the power to handle state affairs while President Umaru Yar'Adua was hospitalized in Saudi Arabia in January 2010, but upon Yar'Adua's return, Jonathan continued as acting President and officially succeeded him after his death in May 2010.

Following the weekend's voting, Jonathan became the first president from an ethnic minority group to be voted in as President.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague welcomed the election and congratulated Jonathan and the people of Nigeria, describing the election as a "a significant step forward, not just for Nigeria but also for democracy throughout Africa."

"This election appears to be the most credible since the end of military rule in 1999," Hague stated, commending the leadership of Jega, the INEC, Nigeria’s Youth Service and civil society.

"These elections were not completely peaceful, but it is to the credit of the Nigerian people that they voted in spite of the violence," Hague continued. 

"It is also clear that deficiencies in the process and individual challenges to the reported results will need addressing. I call for those challenges to be pursued peacefully and in the spirit of the democratic values which we share. I condemn the violence that has taken place following the election and reportedly led to the loss of life."

International monitors said Saturday's election, in which tens of millions of votes were cast, could be Nigeria's first credible vote for decades. Voting was reported to have generally gone smoothly, despite some reports of fraud and incidents of violence, including two bomb explosions in the north-eastern city of Maiduguri.

Dozens of people were killed in the run-up to the vote. Since November 2010, more than 50 people were killed in violence linked to political party primaries and election campaigns.

Nigeria has a history of violent and deeply flawed elections. Observers from the European Union described the 2007 elections as among the worst they had witnessed anywhere in the world. At least 300 people were killed, and many others injured, in violence linked to the elections. Many of the results led to court challenges.

Federal and state elections in 2003 were also marred by fraud as well as serious incidents of violence that left at least 100 people dead and many others injured.

Between independence in 1960 and 1999, Nigeria produced only two elected governments - both were overthrown in military coups. Nigeria's military ruled the country for nearly 30 of its first 40 years of independence. However, in 1999, Nigeria made a transition to

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