Nigeria starts electoral reform as tribunals sit

ABUJA, Nigeria, Aug 28 (Reuters) Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua set up an election reform panel today, which critics said was premature until legal challenges to April's election were resolved.

Opposition parties said Yar'Adua lacked the moral authority to make the reforms, having benefited from a poll dismissed by independent observers as ''not credible''.

Inaugurating the 21-member panel led by a former chief justice, Yar'Adua said he was fulfilling a promise made at his inauguration in May to reform the electoral process in Africa's most populous nation.

''I would advise that you focus for now on aspects of your assignment that would not be construed as being prejudicial to any on-going election petition matters,'' Yar'Adua said.

April's election was so heavily marred by vote-rigging that European Union observers said it fell ''far below basic international standards'' and was ''not credible''.

Yar'Adua rejected opposition calls to cancel the result and run again, saying he believed he had the mandate of the Nigerian people. He promised to let tribunals probe abuses without interference and moved to include opposition parties in his cabinet.

Opposition party Action Congress, which rejected offers to join the government, said Yar'Adua was wrong to act as if the election was a fait accompli.

''If they believe in the rule of law as they claim, they will wait till the election petition cases have been dispensed with before embarking on the electoral reform process,'' the party said in a statement.

April's election was meant to be a democratic watershed for Africa's top oil producer, marking the first handover from one elected leader to another in the country's 47-year history.

But ballot-stuffing, results switching, violence and intimidation -- mostly by Yar'Adua's People's Democratic Party -- were so widespread that the main domestic observer mission called it a ''charade''.

The president's two main rivals at the polls -- former strongman Muhammadu Buhari of the main opposition All Nigeria People's Party and ex-Vice President Atiku Abubakar of the Action Congress -- have both contested the results.

The tribunals are expected to start hearing the petitions next week, but the cases will probably drag on for months.

Yar'Adua said almost every election since the 1959 vote that ushered in independence had been followed by controversy, which threatened Nigeria's political stability and development.

Setting terms of reference for the panel, Yar'Adua said he wanted it to come up with recommendations to lift elections to international standards, make the electoral body autonomous, resolve legal disputes before the transfer of power, and consider proportional representation in government.

He gave the panel a year to complete its task.

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