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IRIN-WA Update 407 of Events in West Africa (Monday 22 February)
NIGERIA: PDP wins parliamentary elections
With less than one-fifth of the results still to come, Nigeria's centre-left People's Democratic Party (PDP) has gained 194 of 360 House of Representative seats in Saturday's legislative elections, Reuters reported today (Monday). The PDP has also won 59 seats in the 109-seat Senate, the upper chamber.
The Alliance for Democracy (AD) and its ally the All People's Party (APP) have won 127 House and 39 Senate seats between them, Reuters said. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) told IRIN official results would be declared tomorrow (Tuesday).
Voter turnout low
Turnout among Nigeria's 45 million voters was low but orderly, news reports said.
Voting failed to take place in two senatorial districts and five federal constituencies in the troubled Delta State, Nigerian radio said yesterday. It said INEC postponed voting because of the "fragile security situation". The Delta, which produces almost all of Nigeria's crude oil, has over the past year been the scene of unrest and kidnappings because of its continued state of under-development and environmental pollution.
Political analysts told IRIN today the poor turnout was due to a number of factors: Voters were badly informed of the candidates standing for the Assembly, they were burnt out by two previous elections which began in December 1998, and were simply too focused on the presidential polls due this weekend.
Abiola's daughter wins assembly seat
The eldest daughter of the late opposition politician, Moshood Abiola, has won a seat in the Assembly, news reports said. Lola Abiola-Edewor, 38, received 85 percent of the votes for the Lagos Apapa seat. She is the only member of the Abiola family who has engaged in politics since her father's death in detention ion July 1998. Moshood Abiola, was the presumed winner of the annulled presidential polls of 1993. He was imprisoned in 1994 for declaring himself president of Nigeria.
Some irregularities but polls a success
Despite some "serious irregularities", Nigeria's
legislatve elections should be judged "a qualified
success", the European Union said in a statement
reaching IRIN today.
The EU, which sent some 100 observers to the polls, said the most serious problems occurred in Bayelsa and Port Harcourt, in the south of the country. In these locations, the EU said, there were "many instances" where accreditation failed to take place and where ballot boxes were stuffed. The EU observers visited 750 of the 110,000 polling stations. The EU said observer groups from Canada, Japan and Norway agreed with the assessment of the polls.
AFP reported that there were no international observers in the southeastern oil town of Warri for fear of kidnapping.
SIERRA LEONE: Malian troops arrive in Freetown
The first batch of Malian troops for the West African intervention force, ECOMOG, arrived in Freetown on Saturday, according to an ECOMOG press release sent to IRIN. The 428 troops were received by ECOMOG Chief of Staff Brigadier General Abu Ahmadu who noted they had arrived at a "most vital time".
"Although by circumstance ECOMOG has found itself fighting a total war, this force is primarily a peace-keeping outfit," he said, adding that the Malians would be deployed immediately.
Kabbah urges UN to act against rebels
President Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah has urged the UN to act against arms suppliers who are helping fuel civil war in his country, news organisations reported. In a radio and television broadcast yesterday, he said the Security Council should now focus attention on the rebels "as it is no longer enough to merely condemn their atrocities". He called on the Council to "exert pressure on those states and individuals who continue to supply weapons and logistics" to the rebels.
"The Council should consider the possibility of taking further action not excluding the use of force against the rebels and their supporters," Kabbah said. As long as the rebels persisted with their attacks, the government would continue to "defend every corner of the nation", he added.
UN envoy meets rebel spokesman
Meanwhile, the UN Special Representative for Sierra Leone, Francis Okelo, had talks in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, over the weekend with a spokesman for the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF), Omrie Golley. News reports quoted Golley as saying the meetings were "constructive", but he gave no further details.
On Friday, Golley told AFP his movement was still waiting for the Sierra Leone government to come up with proposals for meeting jailed RUF leader Foday Sankoh. It was two weeks since Kabbah had given permission for Sankoh to meet his rebel commanders, Golley said. "We want to see Foday Sankoh, we have to talk to him," the RUF spokesman added.
LIBERIA: More suspected rebel collaborators arrested
Two more people have been arrested in Monrovia suspected of collaborating with the RUF and Sierra Leone military junta, Star Radio reported. It said the two, including a Sierra Leonean, are being interrogated along with eight people arrested at the Red Deer International company on Wednesday.
Nigeria hails arrests
The Nigerian government said the arrests were a "clear vindication" of Nigeria's charges that RUF/junta rebels had been using Liberia as a base to topple Kabbah. In a foreign ministry press release, received today by IRIN, the Nigerian government called on Liberia to "demonstrate its often repeated sincerity and faith in decisions of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) by releasing the arrested persons to ECOMOG for further interrogation".
Government invokes measures to stop involvement in Sierra Leone
The Liberian government has announced a series of measures aimed at "discouraging Liberians from complicating the Sierra Leone crisis", Star Radio reported yesterday. Among the measures were an amnesty for Liberians who were fighting in Sierra Leone. The government gave a 45-day deadline, beginning Saturday, for the Liberians to cooperate with a "voluntary repatriation programme". The government it would work with the Sierra Leone authorities to arrest and prosecute Liberians who did not turn themselves in.
In a further move, the Liberian government said it would
relocate refugee camps currently situated near the
Sierra Leone border. Star Radio today quoted the government
as saying the measure was a bid to discourage attempts
to use the camps for subversive activities against
Sierra Leone. Security forces were on full alert to
patrol the borders, the government added.
GUINEA BISSAU: Prime Minister Fadul takes oath of office
Guinea-Bissau's government of national unity was installed
on Saturday with the swearing into office of Prime
Minister Francesco Fadul, news reports said.
Speaking on the occasion, Fadul said that the disruption caused by the civil war made it impossible for him to organise national elections sooner than September, Reuters reported. Under a peace accord signed in December 1998, that ended months of an army rebellion against President Joao Bernardo Vieira, the elections were to have been held by end March at the latest.
Fadul's swearing-in ceremony was attended by Togolese Prime Minister Kwassi Kloutse, who represented President Gnassingbe Eyadema as chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS); Portuguese Foreign Minister Jaime Gama, his Gambian counterpart Sadat Jobe, Senegal's Interior Minister Lamine Cise and other representatives from ECOWAS and neighboring Guinea. The event came a week after an accord was reached between Vieira and his rival, rebel leader and former army chief Ansumane Mane.
Vieira has appointed five ministers and three state secretaries to the cabinet and Mane has chosen four ministers and an equal number of state secretaries, the Portuguese news agency Lusa reported.
The agency said the foreign and justice ministers, Hilia Barber and Carlos Domingos, were Vieira appointees. Ministers of defence, the interior, and the economy - Silvestre Alves, Caetano Intchama and Abubacar Dahaba - were named by Mane's Military Junta. The only official from the previous government is Pinho Brando, former secretary of state for energy. He is now the minister of agriculture.
Fadul had said he would not take office before troops from Guinea and Senegal, who have been backing Vieira since the June army rebellion, had left the country. Some 900 Senegalese soldiers from a total of 2,500 have reportedly begun to withdraw.
Abidjan, 22 February 1999, 17:10 gmt
[ENDS]
Date: Mon, 22 Feb 1999 17:18:24 +0000 (GMT) From: UN IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@wa.ocha.unon.org> Subject: IRIN-West Africa Update 407 for 1999.2.22
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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