ABUJA, April 23: Umaru Yar’Adua of Nigeria’s ruling party was on Monday declared winner of the country’s presidential elections by the national electoral commission (INEC).

“Umaru Yar’Adua is hereby declared the winner,” said Maurice Iwu, head of the electoral commission.

Yar’Adua won with 24.6 million votes, far ahead of his two main opposition rivals, Iwu said.

Onetime military ruler Muhammadu Buhari came in second place with 6.6 million votes, Vice-president Atiku Abubakar won 2.6 million, and the remaining 23 candidates won less than 300,000 votes.

Yar’Adua, the 55-year-old governor of the northern state of Katsina, was the candidate of President Olusegun Obasanjo’s ruling People’s Ruling Party (PDP) and consequently was favoured to win.

He takes over from Obasanjo at the end of May in the first civilian-to-civilian transition in Nigeria’s turbulent history since independence in 1960.

The opposition has harshly criticised the vote as flawed while foreign monitors said the elections were far below international democratic standards. As a former military ruler, Obasanjo handed power over to civilians in 1979.

Two decades later, after 15 years of almost-constant military rule, he went on to win two successive presidential elections in 1999 and 2003, marred by allegations of massive vote rigging.—AFP