NIGERIAN OFFICIALS RIG THE ELECTIONS
Lagos
OCTOBER 13 -~- Monday was election day in Nigeria's Western -Region. Out of the 5, 000, 000 qualified voters, some 4,000,000 went to the polls,
By the end of the day reports floated in of constituencies where no election was held because the electoral officials had "postponed the election" on their own decision,
In the outskirts of Lagos a local candidate of the United Progressive Grand Alliance threatened to murder the premier if he rigged the election. Your correspondent saw this candidate, shoeless and in shorts, shake an election official (a member of the Nigerian National Democratic party) and tell him that he would shoot him. through the ears if he did not allow elections. The pressure is great since Lagos is about 90% UPGA.
I also saw a crowd break into a house and drag out ballot boxes
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stuffed to the brim with NNDP ballots. The crowd then set fire to. the house,
At Ibadan an election official was killed in broad daylight. It was rumored that he had been bought up.
In Epe two officials were kidnapped by rightists.
A UPGA man in Ado was generally recognized to be backed by about 99.99% of the electorate. Nevertheless the NNDP nominee was declared the "winner."
The regional secretary of the National Convention of Nigerian Citizens defeated the NNDP minister of justice and attorney general, The announcement was later "corrected" and the incumbent NNDP man was reported to have won,
In many cases the government announced the results even before the votes were counted,
On Tuesday the radio controlled by the UPGA in the Eastern Region said that the results up to that point showed the UPGA to be leading in 68 out of 96 seats. However on Wednesday, the newspapers, which are controlled by the NNDP, showed a photograph of the NNDP leaders in an elated victory clutch,
This was the background to the UPGA move setting up a counter government. It was based on the conviction of the UPGA that it had really won the election,
The government response to this was to call a curfew from 7 a.m. to 7 pm.
The UPGA leaders are affirming that this will be the last election of its kind in Nigeria. However, this is just talk. They cannot be counted on to do anything that would take them away from the parliamentary road. ©
The people are very angry but they have not yet built a leadership capable of providing a revolutionary alternative.
IN