20110402
reuters

ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria postponed parliamentary elections until Monday after voting materials failed to arrive in many areas, a major blow to hopes of a break with a history of chaotic polls in Africa's most populous nation.

Voters had trooped early to polling stations across the country of 150 million, eager for a ballot less tainted by fraud and violence than 2007 elections that lacked credibility in the eyes of Nigerians and international observers.

The postponement brought bitter disappointment.

"Nigeria has not changed and today we have seen that," said Kingsley Eze, 23, an amateur jazz musician in Port Harcourt, hub of the oil industry which provides most of Nigeria's exports.

Confusion added to the frustration in Nigeria's biggest cities -- the commercial capital Lagos in the south and Kano in the north -- where voting went ahead in some places because election materials had arrived on time.

"It only tells how grossly incompetent we are about nearly everything," complained computer engineer Bayo Ayodele in Lagos.

"I bet you most people who were disappointed will not come back on Monday... After all, our votes don't usually count."

President Goodluck Jonathan, favourite to win re-election on April 9, was among those to discover that voting materials had not reached his home region, in the oil-producing Niger Delta. It was the same across much of Nigeria.