[ 2011-04-09 ]

Nigeria elections: Polls to open after deadly attacks
Nigerians are preparing to vote in parliamentary
elections marred by bloody attacks and chaotic
delays.

On Friday, a bomb blast at the election
commission's office in the central town of Suleja
killed at least six people.

In the north-eastern state of Borno, gunmen shot
dead four people at a police station where
election officials were preparing voting
materials.

Several other bombs were defused by the security
forces, who had earlier warned of a plot to
disrupt the elections.

Voting - for 360 seats in the lower chamber, and
109 in the Senate - had already begun last
Saturday, and millions were queuing, when it was
discovered that ballot papers were missing in some
parts of the country, prompting delays due to the
difficulty of replacing ballot papers.

Various issues have resulted in three separate
announcements of postponements, while the
elections for president and state governors have
also been set back.

Saturday's voting is set to go ahead in around 86%
of constituencies in Africa's most populous
nation, with registration starting at 0800 (0800
GMT) ahead of polling stations opening at midday.

Voting postponed
Friday evening's blast hit Suleja - just 20 km (12
miles) from the capital Abuja - at about 1800, a
day after a bomb in the northern city of Kaduna
killed one person.

The dead included an official from the ruling
People's Democratic Party (PDP), who had been
preparing to distribute election materials ahead
of the parliamentary polls, police say.


A senior election commission official told the BBC
he was making frantic efforts to contact election
workers who had been working in the building and
were still unaccounted for.

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan condemned the
"heinous bomb attack" and ordered an immediate
increase in security at all electoral commission
premises across the country.

A statement from the president's office said the
dead included members of the National Youth
Service Corps who had been "engaged in preparatory
work for the conduct of free, fair and credible
elections in the country".

Continue reading the main story
Vote by Numbers

74 million registered voters
360 House of Representatives
109 senators
54 parties contesting
36 governors
20 presidential candidates
African viewpoint: Bloody politics
The BBC's Caroline Duffield in Nigeria says Suleja
was the target of a bomb some weeks ago, when men
hurled a bomb towards an election rally from a
moving car.

The build-up to Nigeria's elections has been
violent, adds our correspondent, with attacks on
party offices in the Niger Delta, bomb blasts, and
the assassination of an election candidate in the
north-eastern city of Maiduguri.

At least 85 people have lost their lives in
political violence linked to the elections,
according to Human Rights Watch, the campaign
group.

Previous elections held since the 1999 end of
military rule have been characterised by
allegations of widespread fraud and violence.

Presidential elections have been put back a week
to 16 April, with polls to choose the 36 powerful
state governors now to be held on 26 April

Source - BBC

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