Brian England 2/26/08 Global Political Relations
www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/02/26/nigeria.elections.ap/index.html
President Umaru Yar'Adua has been reelected as Negerian President for his second term but it is said to be flawed. He is trying to avoid court by saying he had no hand in the 'box stuffing', and he is also trying to say that it was not widespread enough to make a difference. This is controversial as his opponents Muhammadu Buhari and ex-vice president Atiku Abubakar try to bring this matter to the highest court in Nigeria. Men were said to have been outside of voting booths were weapons intimidating voters. This is not the first time election rigging has been accused of occuring but this is the first time with this severity. Also Yar'Adua was peacefully handed over office by former president Obasanjo, which was a hopeful step in the way of democracy. There are also election commisioners that say the effect of the rigging on the results of the outcome is speculative and inconclusive.
Even though the 'box stuffing' was widely observed, these two men have to be able to prove that it was influential, which makes it hard considering the president has many friends and much authority to hide an accurance like this. Corruption like this can go on in governments for a long time, and it may be a responsibility of an outside nation to go in and enforce some imperialism. That is just an idea and not my opinion. But it would be in some nation's best interest to monitor this government's intentions if there may be future plans that they don't want outsiders to come in and be awakened to.
No comments:
Post a Comment