Posted on 04/21/2007 12:17:50 PM PDT by Valin
LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) -- A truck bomb aimed at Nigeria's electoral commission headquarters ran into barriers and failed to explode Saturday, but polls opened despite the attack for a presidential vote already shadowed by charges of fraud and a last-minute ballot hitch.
In a lagoon-side slum in the sprawling city of Lagos where fishermen live in stilt houses, voters dropped their tally sheets into clear, plastic boxes. Elsewhere, electoral workers were still scrambling to unpack ballots and arrange ballot boxes.
A successful election would be key to advancing democracy here - Africa's most populous country - and across the continent. The voting was to set up a transfer of power between elected civilian leaders for the first time since Nigeria gained independence from Britain in 1960. Other attempts have been overturned by annulments or military coups.
Maurice Iwu, the electoral commission chairman, blamed the failed truck bombing on "desperate Nigerians not interested in contesting these elections." The tanker ran into barriers and a power pole and stopped before reaching the building.
Iwu also said voters should expect delays in many areas due to the logistical hurdles of distributing 65 million ballots to 120,000 polling centers across a vast, impoverished nation of 140 million people, 250 ethnic groups and hundreds of languages. A main candidate's name was added only this week after the Supreme Court overturned an electoral commission decision to bar him from running, and some of the millions of ballots were still arriving in the country on Friday.
Presidential ballots distributed in many parts of the country lacked serial numbers or any other unique distinguishing marks that would guard against fraud by allowing officials to track the papers from ballot boxes through collation centers.
"I'm begging Nigerians to be patient. We're meeting emergencies as best as we can," Iwu said.
Lai Mohammed, a spokesman for the leading opposition Action Congress, alleged massive "irregularities" across the nation, saying voting was not taking place in many states.
In the main city of Lagos, some polling centers had only a fraction of the ballot papers needed, sparking heated arguments. In some parts of Lagos, voting material for the national legislature never arrived.
But overall, voting seemed more orderly than the elections a week earlier for state governors and legislators, with no early reports of stations being attacked or materials stolen.
In the northern city of Katsina, the governing party candidate, Katsina State Governor Umaru Yar'Adua, cast his ballot and said Nigerians shouldn't expect a flawless vote.
"There's nothing that human beings do that is perfect. Only the book of God is perfect," said Yar'Adua, who is Muslim.
Police Inspector General Sunday Ehindero said militants who battled government forces for hours on the eve of the vote in a southern oil-rich state were seeking to kidnap the ruling party's vice presidential candidate, who is also the state's governor.
Ehindero said 34 police officers have died in recent election violence that 40 civilians were killed. He gave no time period.
The political opposition has rejected results from state elections held April 14 which showed the ruling party clearly winning. The opposition parties and neutral observers have said the state vote was marred by fraud.
With a comparatively well educated population and the world's seventh-largest oil industry, Nigeria has vast human and material potential. But the wealth has been squandered or stolen during the decades of military rule, leaving most Nigerians poor.
President Olusegun Obasanjo, a former military ruler, won a 1999 election that ended 15 years of near-constant military rule. His 2003 re-election was marked by allegations of massive vote rigging. He was prevented from running again by constitutional term limits - after his supporters failed to overturn the limits.
The runner-up in 2003, former military leader Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, called the 2003 vote a fraud.
Buhari is considered one of the three front runners in Saturday's vote, alongside Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who heads an opposition party ticket, and Yar'Adua, who inherited Obasanjo's powerful party machinery.
Abubakar fell out with Obasanjo after he opposed the attempt by the president's supporters to amend the constitution to allow Obasanjo another elected term.
Abubakar only rejoined the ticket this week after the Supreme Court overruled an electoral commission decision that had barred him from the race on corruption charges. The vice president denies the charges, which emanated from the president.
In addition to choosing from among 25 presidential candidates, Nigeria's 61 million registered voters are voting to fill 300 seats in the federal legislature.
The presidential winner must gain the most votes cast nationwide and at least one quarter of ballots cast in 24 of Nigeria's 36 states, a provision designed to ensure the president draws support from around the massive, multiethnic, polyglot nation.
If no winner emerges, a runoff would be held within one month. A new government will take power on May 29.
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Associated Press Writers Katharine Houreld in Warri, Dulue Mbachu in Kano and John Alechenu in Katsina contributed to this report.
Which candidate will rebuild all the burnt out Christian churches?
The church will rebuild them. Did the Nigerian government burn them down?
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