Nigeria vote runs into 2nd day after glitches, killings

Abuja, March 29

Voting in Nigeria’s tensest election since the end of military rule in 1999 spilled into a second day on Sunday after technical glitches hit voter ID machines and Islamist Boko Haram militants killed more than a dozen people in drive-by shootings.

The race pits President Goodluck Jonathan against former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari for the favour of an electorate divided along a complex mix of ethnic, regional and in some cases religious lines.

The poll is seen as the first election in Africa’s most populous nation in which an opposition candidate has a serious chance of unseating the incumbent, and widespread fears it could trigger violence are already becoming reality.

Islamist insurgents launched several attacks on voters in the northeast on election day, killing three in Yobe state and 11 in neighbouring Gombe, including an opposition parliamentary candidate. The militants reject democracy and their leader Abubakar Shekau has threatened to kill those who go to vote. — Reuters