2003 Nigerian presidential election

Presidential elections were held in Nigeria on 19 April 2003. The result was a victory for incumbent Olusegun Obasanjo of the People's Democratic Party, who defeated his closest opponent Muhammadu Buhari by over 11 million votes. Voter turnout was 69.1%.

2003 Nigerian presidential election

19 April 2003

Nominee Olusegun Obasanjo Muhammadu Buhari Party PDP ANPP Running mate Atiku Abubakar Chuba Okadigbo States carried 25 + FCT 11 Popular vote 24,456,140 12,710,022 Percentage 61.94% 32.19%

States won by Obasanjo (in green), and Buhari (blue)

President before election Olusegun Obasanjo PDP Elected President Olusegun Obasanjo PDP

Background

New elections were organised for the first time for 15 years in Nigeria by a civilian government. Olusegun Obasanjo 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 uncovered an electoral fraud, finding five million false ballots.

International observers, including the European Union, 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 in the Niger delta 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.

Results

Candidate		Party	Votes	%
	Olusegun Obasanjo	People's Democratic Party	24,456,140	61.94
	Muhammadu Buhari	All Nigeria Peoples Party	12,710,022	32.19
	Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu	All Progressives Grand Alliance	1,297,445	3.29
	Jim Nwobodo	United Nigeria People's Party	169,609	0.43
	Gani Fawehinmi	National Conscience Party	161,333	0.41
	Sarah Jubril	Progressive Action Congress	157,560	0.40
	Ike Nwachukwu	National Democratic Party	132,997	0.34
	Chris Okotie	Justice Party	119,547	0.30
	Balarabe Musa	People's Redemption Party	100,765	0.26
	Arthur Nwankwo	People's Mandate Party	57,720	0.15
	Emmanuel Okereke	All People's Liberation Party	26,921	0.07
	Kalu Idika Kalu	New Nigeria People's Party	23,830	0.06
	Muhammadu Dikko Yusuf	Movement for Democracy and Justice	21,403	0.05
	Yahaya Ndu	African Renaissance Party	11,565	0.03
	Abayomi Ferreira	Democratic Alternative	6,932	0.02
	Tunji Braithwaite	Nigeria Advance Party	6,727	0.02
	Iheanyichukwu Godswill Nnaji	Better Nigeria Progressive Party	5,987	0.02
	Olapade Agoro	National Action Council	5,756	0.01
	Pere Ajuwa	Liberal Democratic Party of Nigeria	4,473	0.01
	Mojisola Adekunle-Obasanjo	Masses Movement of Nigeria	3,757	0.01
Total			39,480,489	100.00
Valid votes			39,480,489	93.96
Invalid/blank votes			2,538,246	6.04
Total votes			42,018,735	100.00
Registered voters/turnout			60,823,022	69.08
Source: African Elections Database