IBADAN, Nigeria -(Dow Jones)- The ruling Peoples Democratic Party, or PDP, won the 17 chairmanship seats in the local council elections conducted in Nigeria's north-central Plateau state, the state's electoral commission said Sunday.
The violence which followed Thursday's elections has left scores of people dead, while several churches, mosques and residential houses have been burned down in Plateau state's capital city of Jos by rioters protesting alleged vote manipulation.
Gabriel Zi, chairman of the Plateau state independent electoral commission, said over the weekend the PDP won all the chairmanship seats in the 17 local councils in the state, while its main challenger, the All Nigerian Peoples Party, or ANPP, won none.
Local residents in Jos said the violence started when rumors got out to ANPP supporters that the party had lost the election in Jos North council to the PDP. The ANPP supporters believed the party's candidate was ahead in the council area.
Zi, while declaring the results, said the election was "free, fair and credible," adding that the commission was satisfied with the conduct of the polls.
The opposition Action Congress, or AC, has called for the cancelation of the election results. The party said the perceived rigging of the elections is the main cause of the violence that has led to a declaration of a dusk-to-dawn curfew in the Jos-Bukuru metropolis.
Lai Mohammed, AC's national publicity secretary, said the government of Plateau state displayed "gross insensitivity in going ahead to release the results of the elections, especially the Jos North that precipitated the crisis, even as the smoke was yet to clear from the ruins of the violence."
A faction of the ANPP also called for the cancelation of the result.
-By Obafemi Oredein; Dow Jones Newswires; 234 2 7510489
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 30, 2008 17:39 ET (22:39 GMT)

Publié le 30 novembre 2008 Copyright © 2008 Dowjones