Yar'Adua

ABUJA (Reuters):

Nigeria's ruling party candidate Umaru Yar'Adua was declared winner yesterday of a presidential poll rejected by the opposition and condemned by observers as a "charade".

The observers and opposition politicians said Saturday's vote for the first handover of power from one civilian leader to another in Africa's most populous nation and top oil producer was manipulated through violence and rigging.

Electoral commission head Maurice Iwu declared Yar'Adua of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) the winner with 24.6 million votes, far ahead of his closest rival, former army strongman Muhammadu Buhari, with 6.6 million.

Buhari rejected the result as "blatantly rigged" and called on parliament to impeach President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Thousands of opposition youths started street fires in the northern city of Kano but the protest was quelled by police and reaction elsewhere was muted.

World oil prices rose sharply on yesterday because of fears of further violence in the world's eighth largest oil exporter, where militant attacks have already curbed output.

Nigeria, scarred by decades of corrupt dictatorship and military rule since independence from Britain in 1960, returned to civilian government in 1999.

Yar'Adua said he was "greatly humbled" and would reach out to the opposition. "I intend to invite them to join hands with me to work for this country," he said.

FRAUD

European Union observers cited poor election organisation, lack of transparency, significant evidence of fraud, voter disenfranchisement, violence and bias.

"These elections have not lived up to the hopes and expectations of the Nigerian people and the process cannot be considered to have been credible," said chief EU observer Max van den Berg.