President Goodluck Jonathan—in power since 2010—is running against Muhammadu Buhari
ABUJA, Nigeria—Nigerians headed to the polls Saturday morning to
choose a leader of a country where past election disputes have set off
waves of deadly violence.
The outcome of Saturday’s contest, and
the way Nigerians react, will help set the trajectory of Africa’s
beleaguered top economy.
President Goodluck Jonathan—in power
since 2010—is running against Muhammadu Buhari, a fourth-time candidate
with wide support among Muslims in the north of the country. Mr.
Jonathan’s support base is the predominantly Christian south.
An incumbent has never lost an election in Nigeria, but polls have
shown the two in a tight race. When Mr. Jonathan beat Mr. Buhari in
2011, riots broke out across northern Nigeria, where Muslims and
Christians mingle in cities like Kaduna and Kano. Human Rights Watch
says more than 800 were killed.
But the two men have pledged to
make this time different. Mr. Jonathan and Mr. Buhari embraced each
other in the capital on Thursday and signed a peace pact that committed
both to encouraging a free, fair and orderly vote.
The government
went to extraordinary lengths to assure Nigerians that they would be
safe on Saturday, closing land and sea borders for days and even barring
most road traffic on Saturday. Officials said a polling station was
within walking distance of most of the 50 million voters.
Yet this election has also been complicated by the threat of Boko Haram militants.
It was delayed for six weeks to give the military more time to beat
back the insurgents, who have vowed to disrupt the vote. The military
has retaken a large amount of the northeast from the militants, but
hundreds of thousands are displaced and it is unclear how many will
actually go out to the polls in the battered region.
Civil
activists worry that a new system to verify each voter using a plastic
verification card and a hand-held electronic scanner could malfunction
or result in long lines that could raise tensions even further.