20110111
reuters

ABUJA (Reuters) - A panel from Nigeria's ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) screened three presidential hopefuls on Tuesday ahead of primaries this week which are set to be the most fiercely contested for more than a decade.

President Goodluck Jonathan, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and veteran politician Sarah Jibril, the only female aspirant, were vetted one-by-one in closed-door sessions at the party headquarters in Abuja.

The panel -- which has the power to disqualify candidates on the basis of background checks or if they have failed to meet party regulations -- is expected to announce whether it has approved all three contenders later on Tuesday.

"The exercise was rigorous," Jonathan told reporters after completing his screening.

Such is the dominance of the PDP in Nigerian politics that past elections have been decided at its primaries -- the party's candidate has won every presidential election in Africa's most populous nation since the end of military rule in 1999.

But this time it is more divided than ever, with opinion split over Jonathan's candidacy, which breaks a power-sharing agreement meant to ensure that power rotates between the mostly Muslim north and largely Christian south every two terms.

Jonathan, a southerner, faces a tough battle with Abubakar, a northerner who emerged as the consensus candidate to challenge him from a group of influential northern politicians.

Jibril has run for president in the past without success.