Nigeria Extends Vote to Second Day After Polling Station Delays

Nigeria extended voting in presidential and legislative elections to Sunday after delays and equipment malfunctions disrupted balloting while suspected Islamist militants mounted several attacks. 

 

Accreditation began late at about half of the polling stations, according to provisional data from the Situation Room, a coalition of civil-society groups monitoring the vote. At least 43 people were killed in election-related incidents, the group said. 

“The election is not going as well as people expected,” Nnamdi Obasi, senior Nigeria analyst at Brussels-based International Crisis Group, said by phone from Port Harcourt in the oil-producing Niger River delta. “Lots of people were not accredited.” 

The election, which was delayed by six weeks, is the most hotly contested since military rule ended in 1999 in Africa’s most populous nation. President Goodluck Jonathan, 57, and his People’s Democratic Party are facing a united opposition led by former military dictator Muhammadu Buhari, a 72-year-old northern Muslim who’s lost three previous elections. 

The Independent National Electoral Commission, known as INEC, said about 56 million of the 68 million registered voters picked up cards that were to be screened by biometric readers to cut down on identification fraud. Only 60 percent of the electronic devices functioned correctly, according to the Situation Room. INEC put the figure at 80 percent. 

Jonathan’s Registration

Jonathan had to delay his registration Saturday after the biometric card reader at his polling station in Bayelsa state failed to recognize his fingerprints. He was later able to vote. 

“It’s a disgrace; in four years they couldn’t arrange an election,” retired petroleum engineer Bassey Itama, 67, said as he waited in the Ajah district of Lagos, the commercial hub. “All INEC officials should be sued.” 

In some areas, registration went smoothly and voting began close to the 1:30 p.m. starting time. Balloting can take place Sunday at those stations where accreditation wasn’t completed, INEC spokesman Kayode Idowu said by phone. Counting of the votes started late Saturday, he said. 

The election is being held as the economy is struggling following a plunge in the price of oil, Nigeria’s largest export, and a currency that has weakened almost 18 percent in the past six months, the second-steepest drop among 24 African currencies tracked by Bloomberg. 

The International Monetary Fund cut its 2015 growth forecast for Nigeria to 4.8 percent this month, about half the average rate over the past 15 years. 

Boko Haram

To win, a presidential contender must take at least 50 percent of the total vote while winning a quarter of the ballots in a minimum of 24 of the 36 states. If none of the 14 candidates secure such a victory, a run-off would be held within seven days after the results are announced. 

The Nigerian military and troops from neighboring Chad and Niger are battling the Islamist militant group, Boko Haram, that Human Rights Watch says has killed at least 1,000 civilians this year in the north of the country. 

On the eve of the election, Boko Haram militants burned down the northeastern town of Buratai, killing 25 people and injuring 30, Borno state Governor Kashim Shettima told journalists in the state capital, Maiduguri. 

Suspected Boko Haram gunmen killed one policeman and injured one other in an attack in the Nafada local government area in the northern state of Gombe, national police spokesman Emmanuel Ojukwu said by phone. 

Militant Attacks

Gunmen killed at least six people in the town of Dukku in Gombe as voters were registering to cast their ballots, residents said. 

“I saw six corpses after the insurgents fled the area, and now the voting continues,” Musa Isa, a civil servant, said by phone from the town of Dukku. Fwaje Attajiri, a police spokesman in Gombe, confirmed the attack in a phone interview. 

One soldier was killed and two were wounded when they were fired upon in the southern state of Rivers, Captain Nsima Essien, a military spokeswoman, said in a mobile-phone text message. An explosion and a foiled attack in two southeastern towns caused no casualties, according to the police. 

In Maiduguri, Boko Haram’s birthplace and home to thousands of civilians who fled violence in neighboring communities, voter turnout was “massive,” Governor Shettima said after casting his ballot. 

“I just have to come out and vote for a change, I need a change in my life and situation,” said Falmata Goni, a 55-year-old woman who fled her hometown of Bama after attacks by Boko Haram and walked four kilometers (2.5 miles) to vote in Maiduguri. “I have no place yet to call a home.”