20110425
reuters

UYO, Nigeria (Reuters) - Ballot box snatching and thuggery marred state governorship elections in parts of Nigeria on Tuesday, although there was little of the orchestrated mob violence which has undermined similar votes in the past.

The state governorship races are the last stage of an election process so far deemed by observers and many Nigerians to have been the fairest in decades, but which has also seen some of the country's worst political violence for years.

Rioting left hundreds dead in the mostly Muslim north last week after President Goodluck Jonathan, a southern Christian, beat northern rival Muhammadu Buhari in presidential polls.

There were localised problems on Tuesday but nothing on a similar scale. Soldiers arrested people stealing ballot boxes in several states around the country, including parts of the oil-producing Niger Delta in the south and Kano in the north.

Security forces shot dead one man accused of trying to steal a ballot box in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, while witnesses reported gunfire as ballot boxes were snatched in at least one polling unit in the southern state of Akwa Ibom.

"There have been some disturbances and abuses across the country which are a concern ... voter turnout has been quite low in a lot of areas," said Clement Nwankwo, head of Nigeria's Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre.

The opposition candidate in Akwa Ibom, one of the fiercest races, said there had been widespread rigging there.

"This is not an election, this is not the voice of the people, it doesn't represent anything other than criminality," said James Akpanudoedehe of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), calling for a partial cancellation of the vote.