Informed sources in Nigeria revealed that voting continued in some areas on Sunday because of technical problems. About 40 people were believed to have been killed in violence related to the election on Saturday, but majority were still able to cast votes in a presidential election that analysts believed is tight race.
Nigeria’s electoral commission INEC says that voting continued till Sunday in about 300 of the 150,000 polling stations. This is extended voting was vital because a lot of the new voting equipment could not perform the critical test of confirming voters’ identities.
In the mean, Boko Haram militants killed about 41 people, including a legislator, and deterred hundreds of people from voting at polling stations in the northeast.
Elsewhere, three people including a soldier were shot and killed in southern Rivers state and police reported two car bombs exploded at polling stations in the southeast but no one was injured. The federal government is yet to confirm the killings.
It is not clear whether the attacks were the work of Boko Haram militants or political thugs.
However, incumbent president Goodluck Jonathan told the BBC that most of the violence in Gombe was not directly related to the elections.
“The war against terrorists is going on, voting or no voting,” he said. “There was a conflict, kind of a crossfire, between soldiers and terrorists that had nothing to do with the elections.”
INEC officials are observed counting votes at polling stations where voting was closed, – most with blackouts forcing some to use torches, car lights or phone lights.
The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has dominated Nigerian politics since 1999, but Gen Buhari’s All Progressives Congress (APC) is viewed as a serious challenge.
Voters are also electing members of the House of Representatives and the Senate
