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A woman casts her ballot in Nigeria's financial hub of
Lagos at one of some 300 polling stations across the country that were forced
to open for a second day due to technical problems ©- (AFP)
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Nigerians on Monday awaited the first results of a
closely fought general election pitting President Goodluck Jonathan against
ex-military ruler Muhammadu Buhari, as UN chief Ban Ki-moon called for calm
after deadly riots followed 2011 polls.
The United Nations Secretary General congratulated
Nigeria for holding a "largely peaceful and orderly" ballot, as the
head of the country's electoral commission said Sunday that the first results
could be announced the following day.
AFP reports:
But Ban called on citizens to "maintain a peaceful
atmosphere and to exercise patience" and condemned attacks carried out by
Boko Haram and other militants attempting to disrupt the presidential and
parliamentary polls.
Military fighter jets and ground troops pounded Boko
Haram fighters in the northeastern state of Bauchi on Sunday after a series of
attacks on polling stations at the weekend.
The presidential election in Africa's most populous
nation and largest oil producer is the closest in the country's history, with
the first credible challenge from an opposition party.
Jonathan's Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has been in
power since Nigeria returned to civilian rule in 1999 but is being pushed to
the wire by main opposition candidate Buhari.
The prospect of a democratic transfer of power -- plus
economic woes caused by the slump in global oil prices, concerns about
corruption and fears about insecurity -- served to energise the vote.
- 'Free, fair, credible and peaceful' -
Voting was pushed into an unscheduled second day
Sunday after failures in controversial new technology but election chief
Attahiru Jega said his commission was confident its objective of holding a
"free, fair, credible and peaceful" election was "on
course".
"We appeal to all Nigerians to remain peaceful as
they await the return of these results," he added, amid fears of a repeat
of 2011 post-poll violence that left some 1,000 people dead.
One government spokesman claimed there was a
"record turnout" and that voting was largely peaceful despite pockets
of unrest mainly in southern states such as the key battleground of Rivers.
The technical difficulties of the voting process,
however, set the tone for a potential dispute as the PDP has opposed the use of
handheld electronic devices to authenticate voters, saying they were not
sufficiently tested.
Buhari's All Progressives Congress (APC) supports the
new system as a means of curbing the voter fraud that has marred previous
elections.
Wrangling over the results began as the counting got
under way, some of it by flashlight in a country which is regularly plunged
into darkness by daily power cuts.
In oil-rich Rivers state, thousands of opposition
supporters demonstrated to call for the cancellation of the elections locally
because of alleged irregularities.
The ruling PDP earlier described the failure of the
technology to read biometric data such as fingerprints -- including on the
president's own voter identity card -- as a "national embarrassment".
The technical glitches, along with the late and even
non-arrival of election officials and materials in some areas, led Jega to
concede there were "challenges".
But the electoral chief stressed that only a small
percentage of the card readers experienced problems.
The devices were used again on Sunday but voters could
also be processed manually if problems occurred.
All ballots were expected to be cast by Sunday night,
with nearly 69 million people registered to vote.
To avoid a run-off, presidential candidates need to
have won the most votes and at least 25 percent support in two-thirds of
Nigeria's 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory of Abuja.
- Deadly attacks -
Boko Haram has dominated the campaign, with military
operations against the Islamists forcing a six-week delay to the scheduled
February 14 election.
On Sunday, residents and a military source said
soldiers supported by two fighter jets intercepted the militants at Dungulbe
village, seven kilometres (four miles) from Bauchi city in the northeast.
A spokesman for the Bauchi state governor said an
indefinite, round-the-clock curfew had been imposed on three areas because of
the fighting.
The militants were believed to have come through the
town of Alkaleri, 60 kilometres away, where there was a dawn raid on Saturday.
Bauchi police spokesman Haruna Mohammed confirmed that
polling stations in nearby Kirfi were attacked on Sunday and election materials
were destroyed.
A series of suspected attacks on polling stations in
neighbouring Gombe state on Saturday killed at least seven.
Boko
Haram leader Abubakar Shekau had vowed to disrupt the election, calling it
"un-Islamic".
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