Abacha clears hurdle for presidential polls

Abacha clears hurdle for presidential polls

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters): Nigerian military ruler Gen. Sani Abacha won a crucial party vote yesterday which means he will face no opponent in presidential elections planned for Aug. 1.

The Grassroots Democratic Movement (GDM), at a ballot in the north-eastern town of Maiduguri, became the fifth of five parties to adopt Abacha when he won 1,368 votes against 408 for former police chief Mohammed Yusufu.

Armed riot police were called in to quell shouts of "We don't want cheating. We don't want Abacha" from angry Yusufu supporters that Abacha, who was not a member of the GDM, could be considered as the party's presidential candidate.

"I am a winner always, but in this case I am out," Yusufu, clearly unhappy, told reporters after the vote.

Lagos lawyer Tunji Braithwaite withdrew after the party's constitution was modified to accommodate Abacha, while a third contender failed to secure nomination.

Abacha's victory is bound to intensify cries of foul from local opposition and democracy groups which already dismiss the transition plan for restoring democracy to the oil-producing country of at least 104 million.

Western countries have hung the threat of a possible extension of mild sanctions over Nigeria unless a semblance of democracy is restored this year.

Abacha, 54, has not yet said he will contest the poll but a vast campaign on his behalf has left few Nigerians in doubt that he hopes to move from military to civilian rule as most of his fellow West African rulers have done.

The Transition Implementation Committee (TIC) charged with overseeing the path to democracy said the Aug. 1 vote would most likely be held as a referendum on Abacha's candidacy.

"We should wait to know what the electoral law says," Khalifa Hassan Yusuf of the TIC told Reuters. "The natural option would be a referendum at which people will be allowed to vote either for or against."

The plan to restore civilian rule has come under fire from local democracy campaigners and supporters of detained presidential claimant Moshood Abiola, the presumed winner of the last presidential poll, annulled by the army in 1993.

Western countries are also skeptical of Abacha's democratic credentials and demand the release of dozens of political detainees including Abiola, who was arrested in 1994 for declaring himself president.