ABUJA, Nigeria — Judging by early election results Sunday, incumbent Goodluck Jonathan was set to win Nigeria’s presidential election in what appeared to be the nation’s fairest vote since the end of military rule in 1999.
His first-round victory would mark the first time a president from what Nigerians call the South South — the Niger Delta oil-producing region, the most developmentally backward in the country — has risen to be head of state.
Adored by southerners, and particularly the poor, Jonathan, 53, found himself Nigerian president by chance last year after the death of his predecessor, Umaru Yar’Adua.
In the election campaign, he traded on his disadvantaged background as the son of a canoe-maker with the slogan, “If I can, you can.”
His primary challenger Muhammadu Buhari, a 68-year- old former military ruler with a tough, disciplinary reputation, won large swaths of the north but didn’t appear to have garnered enough support to force Jonathan to a second round of voting.
The vote was accompanied by less pre-election violence than past votes — and was a far cry from the violence-plagued 2007 general elections. But the protests that broke out Sunday, and the sectarian division evident in voting patterns, raised fears of further disturbances once the official results are announced.
To win in the first round, Jonathan needed not just the highest number of votes but also 25 percent of the votes in two-thirds of the 36 states. He clearly won the most votes overall — and looked set to reach the required support in 24 states.
According to a vote tally by Reuters, Jonathan had won more than 20 million votes while Buhari had won 10.4 million. Nuhu Ribadu, seen as an outside challenger, was a distant third with about 1.5 million. According to the tally, Jonathan had gained the required support in 24 states.
No progressive central tallies or percentages were released Sunday by the Independent National Electoral Commission, but the overall results were expected to be announced today.
