Presidential elections were held in

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

on 19 April 2003. The result was a victory for incumbent

Olusegun Obasanjo Chief Olusegun Matthew Okikiola Ogunboye Aremu Obasanjo, , ( ; yo, Olúṣẹ́gun Ọbásanjọ́ ; born 5 March 1937) is a Nigerian political and military leader who served as Nigeria's head of state from 1976 to 1979 and later as its pres ...

of the

People's Democratic Party People's Democratic Party or ''variant thereof'', could refer to: * People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan *People's Democratic Party (Belize) *People's Democratic Party (Bhutan) *People's Democratic Party (Chile) * People's Democratic Party (Dom ...

, who defeated his closest opponent

Muhammadu Buhari Muhammadu Buhari (born 17 December 1942) is a Nigerian politician and current president of Nigeria since 2015. Buhari is a retired Nigerian Army major general who served as the country's military head of state from 31 December 1983 to 27 Au ...

by over 11 million votes. Voter turnout was 69.1%.Elections in Nigeria
African Elections Database

Background

New elections were organised for the first time for 15 years in

by a civilian government.

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 Lagos (Nigerian English: ; ) is the largest city in Nigeria and the List of cities in Africa by population, second most populous city in Africa, with a population of 15.4 million as of 2015 within the city proper. Lagos was the national ca ...

uncovered an electoral fraud, finding five million false ballots. International observers, including the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

, determined various irregularities in 11 of the 36

Federal States A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governi ...

. 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 The city of Warri is an oil hub within South-South Nigeria and houses an annex of the Delta State Government House. Warri City is one of the major hubs of the petroleum industry in Nigeria. Warri and her twin city, Uvwie are the commercial c ...

in the

Niger delta The Niger Delta is the delta of the Niger River sitting directly on the Gulf of Guinea on the Atlantic Ocean in Nigeria. It is located within nine coastal southern Nigerian states, which include: all six states from the South South geopolitical ...

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 was very long compared with other countries pointed according to observers on possible

electoral fraud Electoral fraud, sometimes referred to as election manipulation, voter fraud or vote rigging, involves illegal interference with the process of an election, either by increasing the vote share of a favored candidate, depressing the vote share of ...

Results

References

{{Nigerian elections Presidential elections in Nigeria

Pres Pres may refer to: Abbreviations *President *Pressure *Presbyterian *Pres, glossing abbreviation for the present tense Acronyms *Posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome * French centers for research and higher education (''Pôles de recherche ...

Presidential election A presidential election is the election of any head of state whose official title is President. Elections by country Albania The president of Albania is elected by the Assembly of Albania who are elected by the Albanian public. Chile The pre ...

Nigeria president