RELIEF FOR NIGERIANS WHO CAN VOTE !

Relief for Nigerians who can vote
By Senan Murray BBC News website, Abuja.

The waiting queue of voters outside the OAU Quarters polling station in the capital, Abuja, suddenly comes alive as electoral officers arrive about half an hour late to kick-off the voting.
But the voters will have to wait a bit longer as the electoral officers sort out the ballots, the collapsible ballot box and a desk under a tree.
It is almost 1100 local time (1000GMT) and finally voting gets under way.
But Joe Orpin who has just turned 19 and is happy to be casting his first vote is disappointed by the delay.
Anyone approaching the area has to put their hands up in the air in surrender -Peter Okwoche in Yenagoa

At the polls: Reporters' log

"I am excited to be finally voting as I couldn't vote in 2003. But I am not happy at all with the delay. I just want to vote and go home," he says.
In another polling station in Abuja's Garki II, there is a long horseshoe queue of voters who are patiently waiting in the scorching sun to take their turn at the ballot box.
"I am happy with the way things are going, except for the sun," says Solomon Fom, a middle-aged man who is standing on the queue with beads of sweat on his forehead.
Delays
Voters in Bauchi and Gombe in Nigeria's north-east are not half as lucky as voters there were still waiting at the polling stations at 1330 without any sign of electoral officers.

Once it began, voting was a relaxed affair in Abuja "It'd be a miracle if some people in Bauchi State manage to vote today," says local journalist Tashikalma Nehemiah Hallah in the state capital.
"There are villages such as Burra in Ningi local government area of the state.
"It takes seven hours of driving on a very bad road to get there from Bauchi. Same thing with Beli and Dengi villages in Kirfi local government area.
"To be quite honest, I don't see how voting could possibly take place in these areas today."
Further east in Gombe State, voting has yet to start too.
"I am speaking to you from a polling station in front of my house in Nasarawa B area of Kaltungo town and I can confirm to you that voting has not started here," Iliya Pau told the BBC's News website from Gombe State.
Arrival of voting material in time is good -Idris Dangalan in Kano.

At the polls: Voters' log

"In fact, what we are hearing is that voting has not started anywhere in the whole of Gombe State."
Further up in Adamawa State, home of Vice-President Atiku Abubakar who is also an opposition candidate in the election, voting has started but with a very low turn out.
"I have just voted, but I must say that people don't seem to be interested in the elections anymore as there are very few people at the polling stations in Yola and Jimeta towns," Nuhu Gapsiso told the BBC News website from Yola.
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BBC NEWS REPORT.