NIGERIAN PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan has taken an early and strong lead in the country’s presidential election, in a poll which has been declared as the cleanest since civilian rule returned to the west African country in 1999.
Results from 18 of the country’s 36 states yesterday, including the capital Abuja, put Mr Jonathan on 14 million votes against six million for his closest rival, former military ruler Gen Muhammadu Buhari.
Both polled strongly in their respective heartlands, with Gen Buhari mounting a serious challenge in the mainly Muslim north, where he won 60 per cent of the votes in the region’s most populous state, Kano.
The retired general is hoping to force a run-off, which can only be avoided if a candidate takes at least 25 per cent of the votes from two-thirds of the country’s 36 states.
In 15 of the states for which results were available, however, Mr Jonathan has already secured the 25 per cent necessary to prevent a second round of voting.
An Ipsos opinion poll in Saturday's This Daynewspaper predicted that he would take 62 per cent of the vote against 24 per cent for Gen Buhari.
Voting was reported to have gone smoothly, although there were several isolated cases of violence and vote-rigging across Nigeria’s 120,000 polling stations.
One person died and eight others were injured in an explosion near a voting centre in the northern city of Kaduna, while a woman was killed in the central city of Jos, which has been plagued by religious violence in recent years.
There were also more than 50 cases of ballot-box snatching, under-age voting and voter intimidation according to the Abuja-based Nigerian Election Situation Room, a coalition of 22 civic groups monitoring the election. Compared to previous elections, which had been marred by irregularities and violence, analysts said this was the cleanest in Africa’s most populous state for years.
“In the vast majority of areas, there were no incidents such as the hijacking of ballot papers, which is a big change from 2007 when we had bombings, ballot stuffing and other issues,” said Thompson Ayodele, director of the Initiative for Public Police Analysis, a think-tank in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial hub. “This election is a very positive step for the country and shows that Nigerians are ready for stable democracy.”
Mr Jonathan took over as president in April 2010, when the then head of state Umaru Yar’Adua died after a long illness. His People’s Democratic Party has won every election in Nigeria since the end of military rule in 1999.