So the counting has begun. Apparently, eight people have been killed (in the south).
Despite this - i THINK, relatively speaking, there has hopefully been less violence than perhaps it was anticipated.
Nigeria counts votes, BBC, 13 April 2003
Votes are being counted in Nigeria, after the country’s first general election since the restoration of civilian rule four years ago. Saturday’s polling appears to have been relatively free of violence, although there were delays and confusion caused by tropical storms and missing voting cards.
Final results for the election are expected by Tuesday, and early reports suggested a high turnout among the 60 million registered to vote out of Nigeria’s 115m citizens.
The electoral commission needs to produce credible results before the presidential election starts in seven days’ time - in this key test for Nigeria’s democracy - the BBC’s Dan Isaacs in Lagos says. Nigeria has a history of fraudulent and mismanaged elections and observers have expressed concerns that these elections could be beset by similar problems, our correspondent adds.
President Olusegun Obasanjo’s People’s Democratic Party was challenged by more than 30 other parties in Saturday’s poll. There were scattered reports of election day violence and intimidation, especially in the south where unconfirmed reports said at least eight people were killed.
A preliminary report by election monitors the Institute for Democracy in South Africa said the “south-south zone” had been badly affected by a high level of violence and intimidation, Reuters said. But voting went ahead peacefully in many cities, where the biggest problem appeared to be a seasonal downpour that delayed arrival of voting materials for hours. As a result, many stations stayed open well after the official closing time of 3pm local time (1400 GMT).
Voting was reportedly postponed until Sunday in the southern town of Warri, in the oil-rich Niger Delta, which has been the scene of ethnic violence in the run-up to the polls. In Port Harcourt, BBC News Online’s Joseph Winter said polls opened four hours late, adding that at one polling station he visited, voting was not being conducted in secret.
Mukaila Yakimi, 51, a polling agent in Lagos State, admitted that conditions did not really allow for secret voting. “Let us say it is an open secret,” he told AFP.
Police said they were deploying some 250,000 officers across the country to keep the peace during the election. The Independent National Electoral Commission said it was determined to end Nigeria’s failure since independence in 1960 to transfer power from one elected government to another. Soldiers have held power in the country for most of the years since independence.