Deadly blast hits Nigeria on election eve

At least six people have been killed and dozens more injured by a suspected bomb blast at a Nigerian election office hours before parliamentary elections, officials and police say.





Friday's blast in Suleja, on the northwestern edge of the capital, Abuja, went off after a fatal shooting in Borno state of four people, including an official of the ruling Peoples' Democratic Party.

President Goodluck Jonathan condemned the bomb blast and ordered an immediate increase in security at election offices hours before voting was to begin in polls that have already been delayed twice amid organisational chaos.

A spokesman for the state security service confirmed the deaths.

"Six people have been confirmed dead. We don't have much detail," Marilyn Ogar told the Reuters news agency.

Yushua Shuaib, a spokesman for the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), told Reuters: "There was an explosion and there are several casualties. It was a suspected bomb blast."

Al Jazeera's Yvonne Ndege, reporting from Abuja, said politics in Nigeria was a "lucrative business" and "sadly some politicians are prepared to kill for the opportunity" to get into power.

The violence was a further blow to hopes of orderly elections in Africa's most populous nation.

Nigeria is due to hold parliamentary elections on Saturday, presidential elections a week later and governorship polls in its 36 states on April 26.

The elections were postponed twice after voters turned up at polling stations to find there were no ballot papers and other election materials.

Huge budget

The Independent National Electoral Commission was given a $570m budget last August just for overhauling voter lists and buying additional ballot boxes, leading some Nigerians to question whether they were getting value for money.

There are 73 million registered voters out of a population of 158 million and the budget means each of the 36 states would receive at least $15m.

Security forces cordoned off streets in the town, where three people were killed and 21 injured by an explosive device thrown from a car at an election rally last month.

The run-up to the polls has been marred by isolated bomb attacks on campaign rallies, violence blamed on a radical sect in the remote northeast and sectarian clashes in the centre of a nation roughly split between a Muslim north and Christian south.

Human Rights Watch estimates that more than 85 people have been killed in political violence linked to party primaries and election campaigns since the start of November.

The leading contenders in the presidential vote include Goodluck Jonathan, who comes from the south and became president after the death of Umaru Yaradua last May.

Muhammadu Buhari, his main challenger and former president running on the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) platform, has major support in the country's mostly Muslim north.

Other candidates vying for the presidency include former anti-corruption chief Nuhu Ribadu, whose Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) party has a strong following in parts of the southwest, and Ibrahim Shekarau, governor of the northern state of Kano.

The PDP controls a comfortable majority in the parliament, but some analysts say the poll could significantly loosen its grip on the legislature.

The party has won every election since military rule ended in 1999. The previous two elections, held in 2003 and 2007, were marred by fraud and irregularities.