Nigeria’s national police chief called for calm on Sunday as he announced that preliminary figures showed 21 people were killed in violence during state elections meant to boost civilian rule and stability.
Police inspector general Sunday Ehindero told state television that a preliminary tally showed 21 dead, including an unspecified number of police, and 218 arrests.
Nigeria’s private daily newspapers reported much higher death tolls.
With initial election results expected later on Sunday, Ehindero called for calm and said losers should follow due process and ”eschew violence”.
”Elections are by and large a competition for power. Some parties are bound to win and some parties are bound to lose,” he said. ”The losers should be gallant in defeat.”
The Vanguard newspaper said 52 people died on Saturday as voters chose their state lawmakers and governors in a test of the electoral system ahead of crucial April 21 presidential elections.
ThisDay newspaper reported at least 41 people had died in the vast nation of 140-million, and presented a list detailing violence from the country’s 36 states. Punch newspaper reported 46 dead. All are the papers are private dailies with large numbers of staff across the country.
Election-day violence ”was low compared with statistical estimates”, Ehindero said. ”By and large, I think it is very good.”
The campaign period saw isolated bouts of violence that left some 70 people dead, human rights groups say. An estimated 15 000 people have died in strife since 1999, when long-held grievances erupted after elections ended 15 years of near-constant and often oppressive military rule.
Saturday’s state lawmaker and gubernatorial election was a test of Nigeria’s electoral system before next week’s presidential vote, which will set up the first transfer of power between two elected leaders in Africa’s most populous nation.
Voting unfolded relatively peacefully in most parts of the country, although many voters waited for hours in front of polling stations that opened late with faulty voter-registration rolls.
In some areas, ballot-box stuffing and other irregularities were clearly visible.
Electoral Commission Chairman Maurice Iwu told state television on Saturday that he had reports of a ”few problems here and there” but called the vote ”a very good first effort in our transition to move from one elected civilian government to another”.
Since its independence from Britain in 1960, Nigeria has never seen power handed from one elected leader to another. Saturday’s event will be closely watched by Nigeria’s 61-million voters, seeking to determine if the presidential balloting can be fair.
Under Nigeria’s federal system, leaders in the 36 states wield great powers and control enormous budgets in Africa’s biggest oil producer, meaning the seats are hotly contested.
President Olusegun Obasanjo’s 1999 election ended nearly 15 years of military rule. His 2003 re-election was marred by violence and accusations of widespread rigging. All previous elections were scuttled by military coups or annulments. – Sapa-AP