Abuja, Apr 13: Nigerians were counting votes today after the country's first civilian-run parliamentary election in 20 years, seeking results that will set the scene for next weekend's presidential poll. Yesterday's voting passed off peacefully in most areas of the country, despite complaints of missing ballot papers and poor official preparation, but was chaotic and violent in the troubled, oil-rich southeast.

Africa's most populous country returned to civilian rule only four years ago, after army-run elections, and the polls are seen at home and abroad as a key test of what Nigerians still call their "democratic experiment". Next Saturday Nigerians will vote again to choose a President and the governors of 36 states. President Olusegun Obasanjo is standing for re-election against 19 diverse challengers.
The results of the parliamentary poll are expected to confirm victories for his supporters in the key electoral battlegrounds and give a boost to the former military dictator ahead of the final week of campaigning. But foreign diplomats and poll monitors warned that, while apparently largely successful in most areas, there were problems with the national assembly elections that should not be repeated next week.
"On a scale of one to 10 - with 10 being as good as we could have hoped for and one being a disaster - I'd give the elections overall about five or six," one western diplomat told a news agency, on condition of anonymity.
"In the Southeast, though, it would be one or two," he added. Bureau Report