KANO, Nigeria - Security forces deployedon the streets of Nigeria's northern cities on Monday to try tocontain protests by youths angered at results showing PresidentGoodluck Jonathan won the presidential election.
Votes counted from all but one of Nigeria's 36 states showedJonathan, the president from the southern oil-producing NigerDelta, had beaten Muhammadu Buhari, a former military ruler fromthe Muslim north, in the first round. Observers have called the poll the fairest in decades inAfrica's most populous nation but Buhari's supporters accuse theruling party of rigging. Results show how politically polarisedthe country is, with Buhari sweeping states in the Muslim northand Jonathan winning the largely Christian south. Plumes of smoke rose into the air in parts of the northerncity of Kaduna as protesters set fire to barricades of tyres.Groups of youths shouted "We want Buhari, we want Buhari". Soldiers used whips to disperse people gathering in thestreets of Kano, the most populous city in the north. A Reutersreporter heard gunfire in one neighbourhood and protestershurled rocks in the dusty backstreets. "Supporters of Buhari are creating havoc. There are Buharistrongholds where there is a riot. We're just trying to get awaybut the police are whipping people," said a local trader whogave his name as Ikechukwu, as people ran down a main street. Fuel stations, shops and market stalls shut down. An armoured personnel carrier, armed police and soldiersformed a barricade around the electoral commission office. "We don't know exactly what's happening but we are expectingproblems because of the election result. We will have thesituation under control soon," said Agbo Omaji, a policeinspector in charge of securing the electoral office. Residents in the town of Zaria said a church was burnedovernight and soldiers dispersed scuffles between rivalsupporters at the gates of the Emir's palace. "People are afraid to go out. The military have been broughtin to provide security and they're out on the streets," said oneresident in Kaduna, where an electoral office was set ablaze. CLEAR WIN Nigeria has a history of rigged and violent elections butSaturday's vote was deemed by many Nigerians, and foreignobservers, to have been a vast improvement on the past, with thevoting process orderly and little unrest on the day itself. A Reuters tally of results from 35 of 36 states put Jonathanon 22 million votes to 12 million for Buhari. There are nowherenear enough voters in the remaining state for him to catch up. Results from one of the last remaining local governmentareas in the rugged and remote southeastern state of Cross Riverwere being brought by canoe, and the electoral commission wasexpected to announce final results later on Monday. The outright win for Jonathan could ease worries overpotential disruptions to crude exports from Africa's biggest oiland gas industry -- far away from the disturbances in the north-- and lift local financial markets which had been unnerved bythe prospect of a potential run-off. But Buhari's camp -- which had urged its supportersthroughout the campaign to make sure their votes counted -- saidsome results looked suspicious, especially where turnout hadbeen exceptionally high in some of Jonathan's strongholds. "In most of the southeast and south-south, no real electionstook place," former government minister Nasir el-Rufai, a Buharisupporter, told Reuters late on Sunday. "In the southwest and the north, the results have norelation to what happened at the polling units and we will proveit in due course," he said. Buhari, who also lost elections in 2003 and 2007, hasrepeatedly said Nigerians would not accept another rigged vote.He told Reuters on Saturday he would not go to court tochallenge the outcome but that his party may chose to do so.
