20100206

By Tume Ahemba and Anamesere Igboeroteonwu

AWKA/ONITSHA, Nigeria (Reuters) - Polls opened late and voters complained they were not on electoral lists on Saturday in a Nigerian state election seen as a test of the country's ability to hold credible national polls next year.

The election for governor of Anambra, one of Nigeria's most politically turbulent states in the southeast of the country, is the first in a cycle of state and federal polls culminating in presidential elections due in April 2011.

Observers are hoping Africa's most populous nation can avoid a repeat of the sort of chaos seen during the 2007 elections which brought President Umaru Yar'Adua to power, polls marred by widespread ballot-stuffing and voter intimidation.

Electoral officials arrived hours late at polling stations around the state capital Awka and commercial hub Onitsha and some early voters gave up and went home.

At several polling stations visited by Reuters reporters in villages around the two towns, scores of voters complained their names were not on electoral lists, meaning they were not allowed to vote. There were no immediate reports of unrest.

"I registered to vote here ... but this morning I came to vote with my voter's card and was told my name was not on the register," said Emeka Chima, a retired civil servant trying to vote in the Dunukofia local government area outside Onitsha.

"INEC (the electoral commission) said they had cross-checked everything and were set for this election. This will now tell you how far their claims were true or false," he said.

Anambra has a history of political violence. Police and soldiers manned joint roadblocks around the state.

The run-up to the poll had already been turbulent. Most of the main parties chose their candidates without conducting primaries, sparking intra-party wrangling in a state that styles itself the "Pride of the Nation".

There is also a legal question mark over the vote.

A court in Nigeria's commercial hub Lagos ruled on Thursday the INEC was not competent to organise elections because its board did not have the minimum number of members required under the constitution, according to a prominent Lagos lawyer.

"Any of the candidates may use the judgement to challenge the (Anambra) poll. It is illegal," said barrister Femi Falana.

An INEC spokesman said the commission had not been served with an injunction after the ruling, which followed a challenge to a local election in another state, and was therefore within its rights to go ahead with the Anambra poll.

REFORM DELAYS

Yar'Adua pledged to reform the electoral system after the chaotic 2007 polls, but electoral reform bills he sent to parliament have yet to be passed into law.

The Anambra election comes amid wider political uncertainty.

Yar'Adua has been receiving medical treatment in Saudi Arabia for more than two months and his failure to formally hand over to Vice President Goodluck Jonathan has brought the country to the brink of a constitutional crisis.

Leadership polls in Nigeria's 36 states are critical because state governors are powerful figures, some controlling budgets larger than those of neighbouring countries, and key players in party conventions at which presidential candidates are chosen.

Anambra is one of eight states, including Lagos and Kano in the north, governed by opposition parties. The ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) is anxious to take them by 2011.

At least 25 contenders are contesting the polls. The main rivals include incumbent Peter Obi, seeking a second term for the opposition All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), and former central banker Chukwuma Soludo for the PDP.

Ex-state governor and former PDP member Chris Ngige is running for the opposition Action Congress party. Another ex-PDP governor Andy Uba, former aide to ex-president and powerful kingmaker Olusegun Obasanjo, is running for the Labour Party.

The fierce four-horse race has polarised the PDP's support base and raised the chances of a bitter fight. It is a scenario many fear could be replicated at a national scale should the party struggle to agree on a successor for Yar'Adua.