World News Today: Nigeria election postponed again

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Nigeria election postponed again

A man casts his vote before the postponement of the parliamentary election in Mushin neighbourhood in Nigeria's commercial centre Lagos April 2, 2011

Some Nigerians had already cast their votes before Saturday's poll was cancelled

Nigeria has postponed its parliamentary election until next Saturday - the second such delay in two days.

The vote was initially due to take place on Saturday, but staff and papers failed to materialise at polling stations around the country.

After first calling the election off until Monday, officials further delayed it until Saturday.

The election commission's decision means presidential and state elections have also been pushed back.

The BBC's Caroline Duffield in Lagos says the country's political culture of vote-rigging and violence has made it difficult for people to accept the official explanations for the delay.

She says many voters - and some politicians - think political interference caused Saturday's chaos.

The elections are seen as a vital test of Nigeria's democratic credentials.

Electoral chief Attahiru Jega was brought in last year to overhaul a system often regarded as flawed.

The electoral chaos has led some to question his suitability for the job.

Vote by Numbers74m registered voters360 National Assembly members109 senators54 parties contesting36 governors20 presidential candidates

Announcing the second delay, Mr Jega said the decision had the backing of all political parties.

"Requests to reschedule the national assembly elections have come from a cross section of stakeholders, including political parties and civil society organisations," he said.

"We are more determined now to ensure that the 2011 elections are free, fair and credible."

The People's Democratic Party (PDP) has won all three elections since the end of military rule in 1999, amid widespread claims of rigging and cheating.

Nigerian elections are also marked by violence - and security had been high in the run-up to Saturday's aborted poll.

But Amnesty International said at least 20 people had been killed in election-related violence over the last two weeks.

The voting process had already started on Saturday, with large turnouts reported in cities such as Lagos and Kano, before Mr Jega announced the initial postponement.

Some 73 million people have registered for the election, where they will vote for 360 seats in the House of Representatives, and 109 in the Senate. The PDP holds more than three-quarters of the seats in both houses.

Nigeria: A nation divided

Politics Ethnic Wealth Health Literacy Oil

The People's Democratic Party (PDP) has won all elections since the end of military rule in 1999. It won two-thirds of Nigeria's 36 states last time. But having a southerner - President Goodluck Jonathan - as its candidate in the presidential elections may lose it some votes in the north.

Nigeria's 160 million people are divided between numerous ethno-linguistic groups and also along religious lines. Broadly, the Hausa-Fulani people based in the north are mostly Muslims. The Yorubas of the south-west are divided between Muslims and Christians, while the Igbos of the south-east and neghbouring groups are mostly Christian or animist. The Middle Belt is home to hundreds of groups with different beliefs, and around Jos there are frequent clashes between Hausa-speaking Muslims and Christian members of the Berom community.

Despite its vast resources, Nigeria ranks among the most unequal countries in the world, according to the UN. The poverty of the north is in stark contrast to the more developed south. The oil-rich south-eastern states complain that all the income flows up the pipeline to the capital Abuja and to Lagos, Nigeria's wealthiest state. But residents of Akwa Ibom and Delta states are still typically better-off than those living in the north.

Southern residents tend to have better access to healthcare, as reflected by the greater uptake of vaccines for polio, tuberculosis, tetanus and diphtheria. Some northern groups have in the past boycotted immunisation programmes, saying they are a Western plot to make Muslim women infertile. This led to a recurrence of polio, but the vaccinations have now resumed.

Female literacy is seen as the key to raising living standards for the next generation. For example, a newborn child is far likelier to survive if its mother is well-educated. In Nigeria we see a stark contrast between the mainly Muslim north and the Christian and animist south. In some northern states less than 5% of women can read and write, whereas in some Igbo areas more than 90% are literate.

Nigeria is Africa's biggest oil producer and among the biggest in the world but most of its people subsist on less than $2 a day. The oil is produced in the south-east and some militant groups there want to keep a greater share of the wealth which comes from under their feet. Attacks by militants on oil installations led to a sharp fall in Nigeria's output during the last decade. But in 2010, a government amnesty led thousands of fighters to lay down their weapons.

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