The first election in a month of voting across oil-rich Nigeria stumbled to a start yesterday with several states canceling polls because of problems and shortages, leading to a breakout of violence in one city.
Some problems began immediately yesterday.
In the northern state of Gombe, officials indefinitely postponed elections for the Nigerian Senate after a “mix-up of ballot papers,” election spokesman Mukhtari Gidado said. The announcement led to a breakout of violence in the southern part of the state capital where police used tear gas to disperse the crowd and arrested one suspect.
Polls in Abuja, the seat of Nigeria’s government, were cancelled because of a shortage of ballot papers — a worrying sign for the rest of the country.
And in the central Nigerian state of Kwara, a shortage of ballot papers led to an indefinite cancellation.
The election is to decide who should occupy seats in the Nigerian National Assembly, positions worth more than US$1 million in salaries and perks. That doesn’t include the lawmakers’ true power — the ability to direct where billions of dollars in oil revenues get spent annually with little or no oversight.
Nigeria, which became a democracy in 1999 after years of coups and military rulers, has a history of flawed elections.
In Ibadan, where local politicians hungry for power have encouraged running street battles over recent weeks, young election staffers slept overnight on dirty green foam or wood signboards outside of distribution centers. As they prepared to leave for polling places, some found that the serial numbers of their ballots didn’t match up, election worker Tani Ayodele, 26, said. Many sat down to thumb through and count the ballots by hand.
Still, she and others remained upbeat.
“It’s my country,” Ayodele said. “I believe we’re doing the right thing for the first time.”
About 73.5 million people have registered to vote in the country, where the total population has been estimated at some 150 million, divided roughly in half between Christians and Muslims.
Many observers say the stakes for the election season are nothing short of whether the West African powerhouse can finally begin to chart a course that will allow it to live up to its huge potential.
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan is the clear favorite to win on April 9, but his main challenger, ex-military ruler Muhammadu Buhari, has major support in the country’s mostly Muslim north.
Governorship polls may hold the most risk for violence, with the PDP also at risk for losing in some states.
The recently installed electoral commission headed by Jega has raised hopes that the vote will be better conducted this time. Jonathan has repeatedly promised a free and fair election.
The commission has done away with an old electoral list littered with false entries and created a new one by taking electronic -fingerprints of every potential voter before issuing them a card.
Polling places had been set to open at 7am, but the first four hours were to be dedicated to “accreditation” of voters — a verification exercise that will be matched up against the number of ballots cast.
Actual voting had been expected to begin at 1130am and continue until all those accredited cast ballots.
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