2007 Nigerian general election

==Conduct==

The Nigerian military killed at least 25 suspected [[Islamism|Islamic]] militants on 18 April, while battling extremists who attacked a police station on 17 April in [[Kano (city)|Kano]], days before the election.<ref>Salisu Rabiu: [http://www.newspress.com/Top/Article/article.jsp?Section=WORLD&ID=565000839228687972 "Nigeria's military says troops kill 25 suspected Islamic militants days before election"], ''newspress.com''.</ref> Shortly before voting began on 21 April, there was an alleged attempt in [[Bayelsa State]] to kill [[Goodluck Jonathan]], who is the PDP vice-presidential candidate and the governor of the state, as well as a failed attempt to destroy INEC headquarters in [[Abuja]] with a truck bomb.<ref>[http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/301DDB62-D2F7-41E2-A644-8D96757775D8.htm "Attacks seek to derail Nigeria poll"], Al Jazeera, 21 April 2007.</ref>

Following the gubernatorial and state assembly elections on 14 April, 18 political parties including those of Abubakar and Buhari, demanded on 17 April that the presidential election be postponed, that INEC be disbanded, and that the earlier elections be annulled; otherwise, they said that they would consider [[election boycott|boycotting]] the presidential election.<ref>[http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/EF7DC4CE-1AC9-4231-BFCE-E437A52088F0.htm "Vote boycott threat in Nigeria"], Al Jazeera, 18 April 2007.</ref> On 19 April, however, both Buhari's ANPP and Abubakar's Action Congress said that they would not boycott the election.<ref>[http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/537E4D68-A8A8-400E-87A6-22A738FA33B3.htm "Nigeria poll boycott threat fades"], Al Jazeera, 19  April 2007.</ref>

The 60 million presidential election ballot papers were kept in South Africa to prevent tampering.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6576077.stm "Nigerians tense on eve of polls"], BBC News, 20 April 2007.</ref> However, last-minute changes to add Abubakar to the list caused problems in distribution of ballots as papers did not arrive from South Africa until Friday evening.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6578499.stm "Slow start for Nigerian elections"], BBC News, 21 April 2007.</ref> The reprinted papers were not serially numbered as was intended.<ref>Sufuyan Ojeifo, [http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=76137 "'Why Ballot Papers Were Not Serially Numbered'"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930180253/http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=76137 |date=2007-09-30 }} ''This Day'' (Nigeria), 22 April 2007.</ref>

===Observers===
Following the presidential election, groups monitoring the election gave it a dismal assessment.
Chief [[European Union]] observer [[Max van den Berg]] reported that the handling of the polls had "fallen far short" of basic international standards, and that "the process cannot be considered to be credible",<ref name='SMH April 24'>[http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/nigeria-election-worst-ever-seen/2007/04/24/1177180600209.html "Nigeria election 'worst ever seen'"], SMH News, 24 April 2007.</ref> citing "poor election organisation, lack of transparency, significant evidence of fraud, voter disenfranchisement, violence and bias."<ref name='Reuters, Tom Ashby Apr 24'/> They described the election as "the worst they had ever seen anywhere in the world", with "rampant vote rigging, violence, theft of ballot boxes and intimidation".<ref name=CNN>[http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/04/03/nigeria.election/index.html?eref=ft Nigerian election pushed back a week], ''[[CNN]]'', 2011-04-03</ref> One group of observers said that at one polling station in [[Yenagoa]], in the oil-rich south, where 500 people were registered to vote, more than 2,000 votes were counted.<ref name=Cancel/>

[[Felix Alaba Job]], head of the Catholic Bishops Conference, cited massive fraud and disorganisation, including result sheets being passed around to politicians who simply filled in numbers as they chose while bribed returning electoral officers looked away.<ref>[http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_Africa&set_id=1&click_id=68&art_id=nw20070425135926563C630851 "Nigeria's church speaks out"], AFP (''IOL''), 25 April 2007.</ref>