Nigerians voted for state leaders in elections meant to help ensure democratic rule, but ballot-box stuffing and other irregularities were clearly visible in the oil-producing south, where violence left more than a dozen people dead.
The state lawmaker and gubernatorial election is a crucial test of Nigeria's electoral system ahead of a presidential vote on April 21 that will set up the first-ever transfer of power between two elected leaders in Africa's most-populous nation.
In a chaotic country known for widespread corruption, President Olusegun Obasanjo acknowledged some violence and electoral difficulties but told state television: "So far, so good."
Voting unfolded relatively peacefully in most parts of the country of 140 million people, even as many voters waited for hours in front of polling stations that opened late, with faulty voter-registration rolls.
But in the southern Niger Delta, where armed militancy, crime and rampant poverty are endemic despite massive energy resources, many voters found themselves unable to exercise their franchise.
Electoral officials could be seen applying their own fingerprints to ballots and stuffing them into boxes, which were full despite a paltry turnout.
Inside the transparent box, numerous ballots could be seen folded as one - an impossibility if single voters were depositing the tally cards.
By the time Ben Naanen, a 50-year old professor, arrived at his polling station, no ballot papers remained. He blamed Nigeria's corrupt political elite, who citizens say rig elections and pilfer state coffers.
"They stole my money, they stole my vote, they stole everything that belonged to me," he said, dejected. In other parts of the state, angry voters gathered in front of locked polling stations that failed to open all day.
The campaign period has seen isolated bouts of violence that have left some 70 people dead, human rights groups say.
The southern oil region has suffered a year of increased strife that cut production and sent oil prices higher around the world. In the latest violence, gunmen attacked a police station in the main city of Port Harcourt, killing seven police officers and razing the building, police said. A notorious gang leader claimed credit.
Three troops were injured in a separate incident and gunmen killed three political operatives elsewhere in the region, police and military spokesmen said. In a nearby state, fights between rival political supporters left four people dead, said Larry Hayford, a local journalist who was on the scene.
In the main city of Lagos, Nigerians voted at impromptu electoral centres set up under trees, in sidewalk tents and in schools. Officials distributed ballot papers to accredited voters, who disappeared into crowds to mark their choices, returning later to deposit the slips in a transparent case.
At one voting centre, young toughs known in Nigeria as "area boys" did a brisk trade in ballot papers and identification cards. Onlookers said the price of a vote was about $US3 ($A3.60). At another centre, a dozen shirtless young men on a balcony above the ballot boxes shouted down at voters, telling them how to vote.
Electoral Commission chairman Maurice Iwu told state television he had reports of a "few problems here and there" but called the vote "a very good first effort in our transition to move from one elected civilian government to another".
Since its independence from Britain in 1960, Nigeria has never seen power handed from one elected leader to another. This event will be closely watched by Nigeria's 61 million voters, seeking to determine if the presidential balloting can be fair.
Under Nigeria's federal system, leaders in the 36 states wield great powers and control enormous budgets in Africa's biggest oil producer, meaning the seats are hotly contested.
The campaign has been bitter. Politicians have traded accusations of corruption and rigging - most notably between Obasanjo's ruling party and top opposition figure Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, who has fallen out with his boss and been banned from the race by the electoral commission. He is contesting the decision.
Non-official road traffic was banned across the nation and young men spilled into empty Lagos streets to play soccer, using bricks and tyres as goal posts. Army troops and police were out in heavy numbers to guard the vote.
Obasanjo's 1999 election ended nearly 15 years of military rule. His 2003 re-election was marred by violence and accusations of widespread rigging. All previous elections were scuttled by military coups or annulments.
Obasanjo recognised the early-morning strife in the country's south, which he dismissed as the work of "criminal gangs".
"There have been some little incidents over the night, like in Port Harcourt," he told state television. "But otherwise, the situation in the country is very satisfactory. So far, so good."
© 2007 AP DIGITAL