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Violence, Irregularities in the Nigerian Election

April 13, 2007

ASSOCIATED PRESS

PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria

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Nigerians chose state leaders Saturday in elections meant to help ensure democratic rule, but ballot-stuffing and other irregularities were on open display in the oil-producing south, where violence left more than a dozen people dead.


The election for state lawmakers and governors is a crucial test of Nigeria's electoral system ahead of a presidential vote on April 21 setting up the first-ever transfer of power between two elected leaders in Africa's most populous nation.



Balloting unfolded relatively peacefully in most parts of the country of 140 million people, even as many waited for hours in front of polling stations that opened late, with faulty voter-registration rolls.



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President Olusegun Obasanjo acknowledged some violence and electoral difficulties but told state television: “So far, so good.”



Under Nigeria's federal system, leaders in the 36 states wield great powers and control enormous budgets in Africa's biggest oil producer, meaning the seats are hotly contested.



In the southern Niger Delta, where armed militancy, crime and rampant poverty are endemic despite massive energy resources, many voters like Ben Naanen found themselves unable to exercise their franchise.



Electoral officials could be seen applying their own fingerprints to ballots and stuffing them into boxes, which were full despite a paltry turnout.



Inside the transparent box, numerous ballots could be seen folded as one – an impossibility if single voters were depositing the tally cards.


 


By the time Naanen, a 50-year old professor, arrived at the polling station, no ballot papers remained. He blamed Nigeria's corrupt political elite, who citizens say rig elections and pilfer state coffers.



“They stole my money, they stole my vote, they stole everything that belonged to me,” he said, dejected. In other parts of the state, angry voters gathered in front of locked polling stations that failed to open all day.



Overall turnout appeared moderate among the country's 61 million voters, about half of whom have turned out for previous elections.



In the main city of Lagos, people voted at impromptu electoral centers set up under trees, in sidewalk tents and in schools. Officials distributed ballot papers to accredited voters, who disappeared into crowds to mark their choices, returning later to deposit the slips in a transparent case.



At one voting center, young toughs known in Nigeria country-region> as “area boys” did a brisk trade in ballot papers and identification cards. Onlookers said the price of a vote was about $3. At another center, a dozen shirtless young men on a balcony above the ballot boxes shouted down at voters, telling them how to vote. It will be days before results are known.



Electoral Commission Chairman Maurice Iwu told state television that he had reports of a “few problems here and there” but called the vote “a very good first effort in our transition to move from one elected civilian government to another.”



The state campaigning has been bitter. Politicians have traded accusations of corruption and rigging and isolated bouts of violence have left some 70 people dead, human rights groups say.



The southern oil region has seen a year of increased strife that has cut production and sent oil prices higher around the world.  Gunmen attacked a police station in the main city of Port Harcourt on Saturday, killing seven police officers and razing the building, police said. A notorious gang leader claimed credit.



Three troops were injured in a separate incident and gunmen killed three political operatives elsewhere overnight in the region, police and military spokesmen said. In a nearby state, fights between rival political supporters left four people dead, said Larry Hayford, a local journalist who was on the scene.



Nonofficial road traffic was banned across the nation, and Army troops and police were out in heavy numbers to guard the vote.



Since its independence from Britain in 1960, Nigeria has never seen power handed from one elected leader to another.



Obasanjo's 1999 election ended nearly 15 years of military rule.



His 2003 re-election was marred by violence and accusations of widespread rigging.



All previous elections were scuttled by military coups or annulments.



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Associated Press Writer Edward Harris in Lagos contributed to this report.



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