Boko Haram extremists disrupt Nigerian election

Millions of Nigerians turned out to cast their votes for president Saturday, in an election analysts consider too close to call. But hundreds have also been scared away from polling stations by Boko Haram extremists.

President Goodluck Jonathan is facing off in this tight race against former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari in the first election in Nigerian history where an opposition candidate has a realistic chance of defeating an incumbent president.

Nearly 60 million people have cards to vote.

Polling has been marred by violence and technical problems in the tight presidential race. At least 41 people were killed Saturday amid an Islamic insurgency in Nigeria's northeastern region. Boko Haram fighters are suspected in these deaths, as well as in thousands of other killings, according to the Associated Press.

Vowing to disrupt elections, gun-toting Boko Haram extremists forced voters to abandon polling stations in three villages of northeastern Gombe state, according to witnesses. Residents of the town of Miringa have said Boko Haram torched people's homes early Saturday and shot them as they tried to flee. The armed group has called democracy a corrupt Western concept.

Officials also told the AP that an additional 14 people, including Gombe state legislator Umaru Ali, were killed in attacks on the town of Biri and Dukku.

Two car bombs exploded at two polling stations in south-central Enugu state but did not hurt voters, police said. Police dismantled two other car bombs at a primary school

The 57-year-old President Jonathan denied the attacks, saying the governor of the state told him there were no blasts. Jonathan's People's Democratic Party (PDP) has ruled the most populous African nation essentially unopposed for 16 years.

The opposition coalition led by 72-year-old Buhari, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has gained popularity by portraying itself as the face of change for voters frustrated by the government's record on corruption, as well as its inability to fight off the insurgency waged by Boko Haram.

Analysts consider the election a pivotal historical event. This is only the eighth election since Nigeria's independence from Britain in 1960. Buhari has contested three previous elections, but not come close to winning before.

The transformative event in Nigeria's political landscape came two years ago when the main opposition parties formed a coalition and for the first time united behind one candidate, Buhari.

The official website of the Independent National Electoral Commission was hacked, then soon secured, according to officials who said the site holds no sensitive material.

Thousands forced from their homes by the Islamic uprising queued up to vote at a refugee camp in Yola, the northeast Adamawa state capital which is hosting as many refugees as its 300,000 residents.

The oil-rich and populous outh is deeply divided, having become a political battleground since the main opposition parties united in a coalition two years ago, leading to dozens of defections from Jonathan's party.

Polling stations opened late in most places. Voter registration was scheduled to start at 8 a.m. , but was ongoing in the afternoon. Men and women lined up separately at many polling stations. Voters are also electing 360 legislators to the House of Assembly, where the opposition has a slight edge over Jonathan's party.

"We have suffered enough, fled our homes after many attacks," said Roda Umar, a housewife from the former militant headquarters of Gwoza. "I'm ready to endure the pain to vote."

Earlier, officials had rushed across the country delivering ballot materials by trucks, speedboats, motorcycles, mules and even camels, in the case of a northern mountaintop village, according to spokesman Kayode Idowu of the Independent National Electoral Commission.

Despite the reported violence, voting across the large nation was said to be largely peaceful, although good humor gave way to anger as some people waited hours to be registered to vote, only to find that machines were not effectively reading new biometric voting cards.

Even the president was affected. Three newly imported card readers failed to recognize Jonathan's fingerprints, nor those of his wife. He returned two hours later and registered without the machine, using visual identification. Biometric cards and readers are being used for the first time to discourage the voter fraud that has marred previous elections

Afterward, Jonathan, wiping sweat from his brow, urged his countrymen to be patient, telling Channels TV: "I appeal to all Nigerians to be patient no matter the pains it takes as long as if, as a nation, we can conduct free and fair elections that the whole world will accept."

Jonathan cast his ballot later in the day.

The problem was a hot topic on social media.

Voting will not end until the last person in line has voted, electoral officials said. It will continue Sunday in some areas with technical glitches. These include some parts of Lagos, a metropolis of 20 million and Nigeria's commercial capital on the Atlantic coast.

Jonathan and Buhari are front-runners among 14 candidates in the high-stakes contest to govern Africa's richest nation. In addition to the Islamic uprising, Nigeria is plagued by several other problems: militants attacking petroleum installations in the south as well as land disputes across the middle of the country between semi-nomadic Muslim cattle herders and mainly Christian farmers.

In a country with a history of military coups and bloodshed caused by politics, ethnic clashes, land disputes, oil theft and, more recently, the Boko Haram Islamic uprising, the election is important as Nigeria consolidates its democracy.

The world is keenly interested, especially nervous foreign investors as Nigeria is Africa's largest destination for direct foreign investment. Its oil-dependent economy has suffered from slashed petroleum prices.

Nigeria's military announced Friday that it had destroyed the headquarters of Boko Haram's so-called Islamic caliphate and driven the insurgents from all major areas in northeast Nigeria. There was no way to verify the claim. Critics of Jonathan have said recent military victories after months of ceding territory to the Islamic extremists are a ploy to win votes. The presidential campaign has denied the charge.

The failure of Jonathan's administration to quell the insurgency, which killed about 10,000 people last year, has deeply angered Nigerians in the north.

International outrage has grown over another failure — the rescue of 219 schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram nearly a year ago. The extremists have abducted hundreds more since then, using them as sex slaves and fighters.

Jonathan and Buhari on Thursday signed a peace pledge and promised to accept the results of a free and fair election.

The Islamic uprising has exacerbated relations between Christians like Jonathan, who dominate the oil-rich south, and Muslims like Buhari who are the majority in the agricultural and cattle-herding lands of the north. The population of 170 million is almost evenly divided between Christians and Muslims.

Thousands of Nigerians and foreign workers have left the country amid fears of post-election violence.

In 2011, there was no doubt that Jonathan had swept the polls by millions of votes. This time around, the race is much closer.