Nigeria is poised to vote this Saturday at its next president. This was stated on Friday the National Electoral Commission, a few weeks ago received a barrage of criticism for abruptly postponing the legislative elections, presidential and governor citing logistical problems. The postponement was a blow to the country's electoral process held throughout the month of April in an effort to turn the page on an era of takeovers by force and fraudulent elections.
"We have taken steps to prepare for the elections. What we need is to call on all Nigerians to vote to appear en masse to exercise their democratic right and in an orderly and peaceful," he told the Friday Attahiru Jega, chairman of the Electoral Commission, recently formed to shape a new democratic process.
This election day started in a somewhat convoluted. The Nigerian town of Maiduguri (north) reported an explosion and several shots in the district of Garam Abba, although there is no evidence that they have caused injury hours before the polls opened, according to Efe. In Africa's most populous country (150 million), more than 73 million people participate in elections in which the current president, Goodluck Jonathan, the hegemonic Democratic Party (PDP), partly as a favorite.
Jonathan has been popular since taking office in May last year, then-vice president after the death of President Umaru Yardua died after a long convalescence, while campaign has staged a quiet, confident of his advantage over rivals . Its main rival is Muhammadu Buhari, of the Congress for Progressive Change, military leader in the 80 and aspiring to the presidency a third time.
His victory would be an unexpected news, despite having significant support in the majority Muslim north of the country. Both were facing a third man, Nuhu Ribadu, the Action Congress, the youngest candidate of the major presidential candidates (50 years) with support in the Southwest. The opposition has failed in its last-minute plan to join forces to oust Jonathan, a failed dialogue undoubtedly paves the way to the outgoing president.
After the failure of this project, the opposition has a little more oil to banish from power the PDP party, which has won every election of calls since 1999. To be deemed the winner, the candidate must gain the majority of the votes, plus 25% of the votes in two thirds of the 36 Nigerian states.
Nigerian elections will be marked also by important security measures in order to avoid prints as those that caused 39 deaths last week, when it postponed the parliamentary elections. According to the results that have just met, the PDP, the party in power has made victory in the national assembly, although it has lost a significant part of its hegemony, a dissatisfaction that seems to have been infected in the presidential .
In addition, to the surprise of many Nigerians, disenchantment with the system, general elections have received applause from observers and international community, marking a milestone in terms of transparency and democratic cleaning. Jonathan is the first Nigerian president hails from the troubled Niger Delta region, rich oil-producing region where violence has experienced a lull during this campaign, giving a respite to the main oil exporter in Africa, with two million barrels a day .
Since the end of military rule in 1999, Nigeria has not held any elections worthy of being considered democratic, a cycle that now has to break. Nigeria tacit agreement provides that the power is rotated among candidates from the Christian south and Muslim north. Winning Jonathan, Christian, his mandate would be extended after having served as president since last May, a fact that could raise blisters on the Muslim north. 
"We have taken steps to prepare for the elections. What we need is to call on all Nigerians to vote to appear en masse to exercise their democratic right and in an orderly and peaceful," he told the Friday Attahiru Jega, chairman of the Electoral Commission, recently formed to shape a new democratic process.
This election day started in a somewhat convoluted. The Nigerian town of Maiduguri (north) reported an explosion and several shots in the district of Garam Abba, although there is no evidence that they have caused injury hours before the polls opened, according to Efe. In Africa's most populous country (150 million), more than 73 million people participate in elections in which the current president, Goodluck Jonathan, the hegemonic Democratic Party (PDP), partly as a favorite.
Jonathan has been popular since taking office in May last year, then-vice president after the death of President Umaru Yardua died after a long convalescence, while campaign has staged a quiet, confident of his advantage over rivals . Its main rival is Muhammadu Buhari, of the Congress for Progressive Change, military leader in the 80 and aspiring to the presidency a third time.
His victory would be an unexpected news, despite having significant support in the majority Muslim north of the country. Both were facing a third man, Nuhu Ribadu, the Action Congress, the youngest candidate of the major presidential candidates (50 years) with support in the Southwest. The opposition has failed in its last-minute plan to join forces to oust Jonathan, a failed dialogue undoubtedly paves the way to the outgoing president.
After the failure of this project, the opposition has a little more oil to banish from power the PDP party, which has won every election of calls since 1999. To be deemed the winner, the candidate must gain the majority of the votes, plus 25% of the votes in two thirds of the 36 Nigerian states.
Nigerian elections will be marked also by important security measures in order to avoid prints as those that caused 39 deaths last week, when it postponed the parliamentary elections. According to the results that have just met, the PDP, the party in power has made victory in the national assembly, although it has lost a significant part of its hegemony, a dissatisfaction that seems to have been infected in the presidential .
In addition, to the surprise of many Nigerians, disenchantment with the system, general elections have received applause from observers and international community, marking a milestone in terms of transparency and democratic cleaning. Jonathan is the first Nigerian president hails from the troubled Niger Delta region, rich oil-producing region where violence has experienced a lull during this campaign, giving a respite to the main oil exporter in Africa, with two million barrels a day .
Since the end of military rule in 1999, Nigeria has not held any elections worthy of being considered democratic, a cycle that now has to break. Nigeria tacit agreement provides that the power is rotated among candidates from the Christian south and Muslim north. Winning Jonathan, Christian, his mandate would be extended after having served as president since last May, a fact that could raise blisters on the Muslim north.
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