Nigeria: Nigeria's main opposition candidate Muhammadu Buhari has alleged the weekend's presidential election had been rigged and warned that he would reject the result.
"We do not consider this to be an election by any stretch of the imagination," said a statement from Buhari's office signed by his campaign spokesman, Sam Nda-Isaiah.
"We are still watching the unfolding drama and if things continue like this, we will most certainly not accept the results," it said.
Partial results from Saturday's poll show President Olusegun Obasanjo winning 65 per cent of the votes cast, clearly ahead of Buhari's 28 per cent, with more than half of Nigeria's electoral districts declared.
"We will be ready to concede defeat if we lose fairly but we do not want to deceive outselves or indeed anyone else that democracy is at work in Nigeria," the statement said.
"Transition from civilian to civilian democracy has never worked in Nigeria. With what we are now witnessing, this one too may soon join the number. It is saddening indeed," it concluded.
The last time Nigeria attempted a civilian-to-civilian transition of power Shehu Shagari's re-elected government only lasted four months before Buhari, then an army general, overthrew it in a military coup.
Earlier yesterday Nda-Isaiah said Buhari's camp would not give the election results "the legitimacy" of launching a court battle, and it is not clear what form their rejection will take. - (AFP)