Gunfire, ballot theft plague elections

IKOT EFUM (AP):

Gunmen fired Kalashnikov rifles in the air and others brandished machetes while storm-ing a polling place yesterday, as voters in Africa's most populous nation struggled to cast ballots after the presidential election sparked riots killing at least 500 people last week.

The attackers made off with the yet-to-be-voted ballots, the ballot box and the youth volunteer in charge of the village's election in Akwa Ibom state, witnesses told The Associated Press.

While international observers applauded Nigeria's legislative and presidential elections held earlier this month, the violence that has erupted in the aftermath has threatened the stability of this major United States oil-supplying nation in West Africa.

Problems had begun even before polls opened yesterday for gubernatorial elections in about two-thirds of Nigerian states. Two elections in the states hardest hit by the post-election violence that left charred corpses along the highways are due to be held tomorrow.

About 700 members of Nigeria's National Youth Service Corps, who were supposed to run polling stations, already had been evacuated from states in the country's Muslim north hit by violence last week, said Yushau Shuaib, a spokesman for Nigeria's National Emergency Management Agency.