Pretoria - The presidential and national congress elections in Nigeria have been extended to late Sunday due to card reader glitches in many parts of the West African country, the electoral body said Saturday.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Nigeria's electoral body, said it has directed all resident electoral commissioners in the country to conduct elections on Sunday in areas where voter accreditation or voting problems were recorded.
INEC noted the election could not be concluded Saturday due to the glitches.
"Each resident electoral commissioner has been informed to conduct election on Sunday where there are hitches with accreditation or voting. I cannot say exactly the number of states affected but the problems are not in all the states," Chris Iyimoga, chairman of INEC committee on information and voters education, told reporters at the National Collation Center in Abuja.
Voters on Saturday turned out en masse to vote in the fifth presidential and national assembly elections since 1999.
In remote areas, especially in the restive northern part of the country, voters also went to the polling units amidst security concerns with reports of explosions and attacks of suspected Boko Haram militants.
Saturday wasn’t without bloodshed in the populous country.
Reports indicate that 25 people were killed and others sustained injuries in an attack suspected to be a perpetration of Boko Haram on a community in Nigeria's north-eastern state of Borno..
Two car bombs exploded at two polling stations in southeast Enugu state but did not hurt voters, police said.
They also detonated two other car bombs at the scene of the first explosion, a polling station set up at a primary school.
A total of 14 candidates are competing in Nigeria's presidential election, adjudged the toughest since the West African country reverted to democracy 16 years ago.
Analysts have indicated that the polls will be too close to call between President Goodluck Jonathan and former military dictator Muhammadu Buhari.-SAnews.gov.za-Xinhua
