Presidential elections were held in

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

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

Olusegun Obasanjo Chief Olusegun Matthew Okikiola Ogunboye Aremu Obasanjo (; ; born 5 March 1937) is a Nigerian former army general, politician and statesman who served as Nigeria's head of state from 1976 to 1979 and later as its president from 1999 to 200 ...

of the People's Democratic Party, who defeated his closest opponent

Muhammadu Buhari Muhammadu Buhari (born 17 December 1942) is a Nigerian politician who served as the president of Nigeria from 2015 to 2023. A retired Nigerian army major general, he was the military head of state of Nigeria from 31 December 1983 to 27 Augu ...

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 ( ; ), or Lagos City, is a large metropolitan city in southwestern Nigeria. With an upper population estimated above 21 million dwellers, it is the largest city in Nigeria, the most populous urban area on the African continent, and on ...

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

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

, 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 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, Udu, Okpe and Uvwie are the commercial ...

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 geopolitic ...

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 o ...

Results

References

{{Nigerian elections Presidential elections in Nigeria

Pres Pres may refer to: Abbreviations *President (disambiguation), President *Pressure *Presbyterian *Pres, glossing abbreviation for the present tense Acronyms *Posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome *Pôle de recherche et d'enseignement supéri ...

Presidential election Nigeria president Olusegun Obasanjo Electoral fraud