CALL FOR NIGERIA ELECTION RE-RUN !

Police fired on rioting crowds in the northern state of Katsina. Nigeria's biggest election monitoring group has said that Saturday's presidential poll was so flawed that it should be scrapped and held again.
Transition Monitoring Group chief, Innocent Chukwuma, said a winner could not be announced on the basis of results from just half of the country.
Voting was marred by violence in which several people died. There was also an attempt to blow up the election HQ.
Ballot delivery failures delayed the poll and some ballot boxes were stolen.
"In many parts of the country elections did not start on time or did not start at all," Mr Chukwuma told Reuters news agency.
He said the official electoral commission had not been properly prepared for the vote.

Relief for those who vote
At the polls: Reporters' log

The head of the European Union monitoring mission, Max van den Berg, said he feared there had been no improvement on last week's regional polls, which were marred by 50 deaths and widespread fraud.
Twenty-four candidates are seeking to replace outgoing President Obasanjo in Africa's most populous nation.
The presidential poll was running alongside elections for the National Assembly and Senate.
Election officials hope to publish results by Monday night.
The new government is scheduled to take power on 29 May.
Cutlasses
Officials had struggled to deliver some of the 60m ballot papers to stations ahead of opening time.

NIGERIAN ELECTION
60m registered voters
120,000 ballot boxes
360 House of Representative seats to be elected
109 Senate seats to be elected
24 presidential candidates
Main contenders:
Atiku Abubakar for the AC, 60-years-old
Muhammadu Buhari, ANPP, 64
Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, PDP, 55
Polls open 1000-1700 (local time) (0900-1600 GMT)
To avoid a run-off, a candidate needs highest number of votes overall and at least 25% of votes in 24 of the 36 states.

Candidates' profiles

In the central state of Nassarawa, close to the capital, Abuja, a number of policemen were killed while escorting election officials with the papers.
Police fired on crowds in the northern state of Katsina, the home state of both the governing party candidate, Umaru Musa Yar'Adua and one of his main opponents, Muhammadu Buhari.
Four people were killed in clashes there after only half the voting papers arrived.
In nearby Kano, men armed with cutlasses and guns stole ballot boxes while in Onde state, in the south-west, men disguised as policemen abducted election officials.
The boldest attempt to disrupt polling was on Friday when a petrol tanker laden with gas cylinders was used in an attack on the electoral commission's headquarters in Abuja.
The attackers tried to roll the unmanned tanker into the building, but the vehicle missed its target and came to a halt.
Street protest
Mr Obasanjo said despite flaws, Nigeria could achieve a peaceful and democratic handover of power.

The more thugs you have, the more votes you have -Sha'aya'u Aminu, 23, student.

Voters' views

Speaking after voting, he said that "those who do not want these elections to take place, they have left no stone unturned to make sure it does not hold".
Mr Buhari said no-one should claim victory because there were so many irregularities in polling.
He said he would call his supporters out on to the streets if the governing Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) declared victory.
Rival opposition candidate Atiku Abubakar described the election as a "national tragedy".
His Action Congress party accused the authorities of ensuring "inadequate supply of voting materials" in its strongholds.
The voting in Nassarawa State has been very peaceful -Dr Samuel Jimba in Keffi.

At the polls: Voters' log

The BBC's David Bamford in Abuja says the comments show Nigeria could be in for some political turbulence as it seeks for the first time to replace one elected civilian head of state with another.
Nigeria is one of the world's biggest oil producers. It is of key strategic interest to both the West and the growing economies of the East.
But despite the country's huge oil wealth, tens of millions live in poverty.
BBC NEWS REPORT.