20110221
reuters

LAGOS (Reuters) - The main opposition candidate in Nigeria's presidential election said he was optimistic it would be a more credible race than in the past but warned events in north Africa showed people would no longer accept a rigged vote.

Former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari told Reuters in a weekend interview that there was widespread disillusionment with the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP), which has dominated politics in Nigeria since its return to democracy in 1999.

The PDP candidate has won every vote since the end of military rule, all of them elections marred by intimidation and fraud. Buhari, who lost two of those races, faces another tough battle against President Goodluck Jonathan.

"Having been the biggest casualty of election rigging from 2003 through to 2007, I think this (election commission) is better led and has therefore raised our hope that the election will be free and fair," Buhari, 68, told Reuters in the gardens of a villa in the commercial capital Lagos.

"More important ... is the awareness among Nigerians that this time around they want their vote to count," he said.

"With what is happening in north Africa, the Middle East, and the Gulf states I think the message is getting across to politicians, especially the ruling party, that they either behave themselves or the ordinary people will take over."

Autocratic governments in Tunisia and Egypt have toppled by popular uprisings this year and there have also been protests in countries including Bahrain, Libya and Yemen.

A political system based on patronage and dominated by a wealthy elite, rather than an autocratic individual, locks out the majority in Nigeria and few imagine protests on the scale of Tunisia or Egypt could spread to Africa's most populous nation.