NIGERIA: Polls close in the Nigeria presidential election, while violence flares in the northern part of the country

Nigerian's opposition parties abandoned threats to boycott elections on Saturday (April 21) before polls closed in the country's presidential race. But the election was marred by violence across the country. Nigeria's former military strongman turned opposition party leader Mohamed Buhari has vowed to challenge the outcome of the presidential polls held on Saturday (April 21). Buhari and other opposition party leaders last week threatened to boycott the elections, citing wanton rigging, voter intimidation and violence. But on the eve of the elections they changed their minds and decided to take part in the polls. "We decided to go and participate in today's elections because it is our constitutional right. And if we made the mistake of denying ourselves that constitutional right, we are ourselves to blame. Now that we are participating, and we have seen what some of the law enforcement agents are doing, we will try and compile it and again go by the constitution and go to the tribunals as soon as possible," he said. Meanwhile, troops shot dead three boys during a protest, thugs stole ballot boxes and millions of voting slips went missing during the election, further dashing hopes of a smooth democratic transition. The vote will seal the first handover from one civilian president to another in Africa's most populous nation, scarred by three decades of corrupt military rule. But hopes the election would be a beacon for African democracy were lost in a catalogue of abuses and confusion. Polling stations closed at 5 p.m. (1600 GMT), and vote counting began shortly afterward. In one of the polling stations, an independent observer termed the election as invalid, because of low turnout. "I think that it's an invalid election, under normal circumstances if you have less than 25% of voters turning out, the election is invalid, and we have less than 15% of voter turn out in virtually all the centres," Jide Emordi said. Troops shot dead three boys aged between 11 and 17 during a protest in the northern town of Daura against alleged rigging, hospital sources said. It was not clear if the victims were protesters or bystanders. Ten other people were injured.

ITN Source | April 22, 2007

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