AWKA – The incumbent governor of Nigeria's southeastern Anambra state was on Sunday declared the winner of a governorship election which voters, candidates and observers said had been marred by widespread irregularities. Voters complained their names were not on electoral rolls during Saturday's polls, while the main candidates including Obi complained of irregularities. Some observers said there seemed to have been a deliberate attempt to exclude many voters. "Peter Obi of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), having satisfied all requirements of the law and scored the highest number of votes, is hereby declared the winner," chief electoral officer Josiah Uwazuronye announced at the electoral commission headquarters in the state capital Awka. Obi scored 97,843 votes, according to electoral commission INEC, beating former state governor Chris Ngige of the opposition Action Congress party, who polled 60,240 votes. Former central bank governor Chukwuma Soludo of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) took 59,355 votes while ex-state governor Andy Uba of the Labour party polled 26,106 votes. The election in one of Nigeria's most politically turbulent states, which has a history of political violence, is the first in a cycle of state and federal polls culminating in presidential elections due in April 2011. Diplomats and investors Africa's most populous nation can avoid a repeat of the chaos seen during the 2007 elections which brought President Umaru Yar'Adua to power, polls marred by widespread ballot-stuffing and voter intimidation. The signs were not promising. Even Obi initially refused to vote, saying that his own family members were missing from the electoral register and that similar problems were being encountered across the state, but he later returned to the polling station to take part.
