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| Counting is under way but the announcement of results has already been delayed |
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|
Jonatthan
and Buhari
|
With eight states and the capital
Abuja declared, President Jonathan's People's Democratic Party (PDP) has a lead
of about 20,000 votes.
Final results in the closely
contested poll are due Tuesday.
The US and UK in a joint statement
expressed concern over possible "political interference" in the
count.
"So far, we have seen no
evidence of systemic manipulation of the process," said the statement from
UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond and US Secretary of State John Kerry.
"But there are disturbing
indications that the collation process, where the votes are finally counted,
may be subject to deliberate political interference."
Nigeria's election commission
(Inec) dismissed these fears, with a spokesman telling the AFP agency
"there is absolutely no basis" to talk of meddling.
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| Female opposition supporters in Rivers State protested against alleged irregularities in the vote |
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| Teargas was used during the demonstration by the security forces |
Of the nine
regions announced, the PDP has taken four, with 2,322,734 votes, and Gen
Buhari's All Progressives Congress (APC) taking five, with 2,302,978 votes.
Police in the
battleground Rivers State have used teargas against female opposition
protesters who were attempting to lodge complaints with election officials of
alleged rigging.
Voting spilled
into Sunday in some parts of Nigeria after problems were encountered with new
electronic card readers.
President
Jonathan was among those whose registration to vote was delayed by the
technology, which was introduced to prevent fraud.
The PDP, which
had opposed the card readers, called it a "huge national
embarrassment".
Election
commission chief Attahiru Jega said only a fraction of the 150,000 card readers
being used nationwide had failed.
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