Word: nigerias
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...votes aren't all counted in Nigeria's presidential election, and that's just part of the problem. With the ballots from 31 of the country's 36 states in, the favorite, General Olusegun Obasanjo, is more than five million votes ahead, and his opponent, former finance minister Olu Falae, is charging widespread voter fraud as the reason why. So far, international observers say only that the cheating has been done by both sides. But the election broke down pretty much as expected, with Obasanjo sweeping the northern territories that are home to the military elite that supports his candidacy...
Despite four decades of independence, the trappings of electoral democracy proved to be something of a novelty for Nigeria. There were no significant policy differences between candidates -- Obasanjo didn't even show up for a televised debate. Besides voting early and often, some Nigerians had reportedly been voting their pocketbooks, selling the franchise for $1.10, and neither candidate's party had much of a history or an ideology. Yet millions of Nigerians turned out to vote for a civilian government to end 15 years of military rule...
...take some convincing - after all, the military simply annulled the results of the last presidential election in 1993. Turnout was below 20 percent in some regions during last weekend's legislative poll -- and even then there were allegations of irregularities. Although Saturday's turnout was far larger, restoring Nigeria's faith in democracy may yet take years...
Last week the state of Oklahoma killed SEAN SELLERS. He was the first person in 40 years executed for a crime committed at age 16, and the 10th juvenile offender executed in the U.S. this decade, more than in Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Iran--the only other countries that are known to execute child offenders--combined...
There are also concrete, practical arguments against the death penalty and its application. Of the six countries that execute people for crimes committed as children--Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Iran and the United States--the U.S. has executed more children than any of the others: 160 since 1973. This monstrosity occurs despite the fact that every major international human rights treaty expressly prohibits executing people for committing crimes before...