Confusion and violence blighted
Nigeria's tensest presidential election since the end of army
rule, with the opposition rejecting results from a turbulent
southern state even before they have been announced.
The opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers
state accused supporters of President Goodluck Jonathan of being
behind killings of its campaigners, and denounced the vote there
as "a sham and a charade".
Dismissal of the vote in Rivers - a center of the Nigerian
oil industry - raises the prospect of a disputed national
outcome and the risk of a repeat of violence that erupted after
the last election in 2011, when 800 people were killed in the
mainly Muslim north.
Voting in Saturday's election was extended into Sunday at a
relatively small number of polling stations after technical
glitches hit voter ID machines.
Witnesses said Islamist Boko Haram militants killed more
than a dozen voters, while at least two people were shot dead in
the oil hub of Port Harcourt, the biggest city in Rivers state
which has a long history of political thuggery.
The vote pits Jonathan against former military ruler
Muhammadu Buhari for the favor of an electorate divided along a
complex mix of ethnic, regional and in some cases religious
lines in Africa's most populous nation.
It is also the first election since the end of military rule
in 1999 in which an opposition candidate has a serious chance of
unseating the incumbent.
Buhari's APC reported violence in Rivers state. "Armed
militias ... have intensified their killing of APC members.
Scores have already been killed," it said in a statement,
accusing Jonathan's People's Democratic Party (PDP) of being
behind the deaths.
"Whatever trash will (be) announced as the result of today's
election is not acceptable to us ... (it is) a sham and a
charade," the APC concluded.
PDP officials did not respond to a request for comment and
it was not possible to corroborate the claim independently.
Islamist insurgents launched several attacks on voters in
the northeast on election day, killing three in Yobe state and
11 in neighboring Gombe, including an opposition parliamentary
candidate.
The militants, who are trying to establish an Islamic
caliphate, reject democracy and their leader Abubakar Shekau has
threatened to kill voters.
A string of military victories by troops from Nigeria and
neighboring Chad, Cameroon and Niger has reclaimed much of the
territory the Islamists controlled earlier this year, but they
retain the ability to mount deadly attacks on civilians.
Voting was beset by problems from the start as officials
turned up late and biometric card readers, introduced to prevent
the vote-rigging that has marred previous polls, failed to work.
Even Jonathan had to wait 40 minutes.
Electoral commission spokesman Kayode Odowu said just 350
polling stations out of 120,000 were still voting. "You can't
say that is too sizable," he said, adding that results would be
collated within 48 hours of the polls closing.
Anybody who announced results before the commission would be
breaking the law, he added.
Turnout appears to have been high, and with up to 56.7
million voters to process, results could take a while to
collate.
Buhari and Jonathan have appealed for calm and signed a
"peace accord" on the eve of the vote, but many Nigerians still
fear a repeat of the post-election violence that erupted in
2011, when Jonathan defeated Buhari.
"The danger is post-election," former Malawian President
Bakili Muluzi, who is leading a Commonwealth observer mission,
told Reuters. "We've been assured by the peace accord between
the leaders but how that trickles down is the danger."
REUTERS