Nigeria voters still lining up after voting was due to close

People were still lined up nearly two hours after voting was supposed to close in Nigeria during the country's presidential and parliamentary election on Saturday, which opened with large delays.

Thousands remained in line at polling stations waiting to cast ballots and sparking frustration.

“No one feels good. I'm not the only one standing here, we've been here since morning,” Atama Sopuchukwu Blessing said at a voting station in Anambra State.

The 21-year-old had been waiting eight hours to vote and said officials didn't appear to know how to organize large numbers of people, with older and pregnant women facing challenges in the long lines.

The elections come amid fears of violence, from Islamic militants in the north to separatists in the south, though officials didn't postpone the vote as the last two presidential elections were. While voting was largely peaceful Saturday, gunmen stole ballot boxes across the country.

Associated Press reporters saw armed men pull up to the voting station in a minibus, fire shots in the air and snatch the presidential ballot box at a polling booth in Lagos, which is Nigeria’s commercial hub. The shots sent voters screaming and scattering for cover, and ballots strewn across the floor.

In the northeast state of Borno, at least five people including children, were injured when Boko Haram extremists attacked voters in Gwoza town, local authorities said.

“The threat was neutralized by the troops of the Nigerian army who responded swiftly and chased the terrorists to the mountains,” said Abdu Umar, the commissioner of Borno's state police.

Analysts say it won't be clear how widespread and significant the delays and attacks on polling stations were until after the polls have closed.

“Despite the assurances of smooth and credible elections by the electoral commission, the voting process has been very complicated for Nigerians," said Mucahid Durmaz, senior analyst at Verisk Maplecroft, a global risk intelligence company. There have been “widespread complaints about late-arriving officials, nonfunctioning machines, low presence of security and attacks on polling stations.”

Incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari is stepping down after two four-year terms. Out of the field of 18 presidential candidates, three front-runners have emerged in recent weeks to replace Buhari: the ruling party candidate, the main opposition party candidate and a third party challenger who has drawn strong support from younger voters grappling with a 33% unemployment rate.

But whether those supporters would show up in force at the polling stations remained unclear as Nigerians have waited hours in line at banks across the country this past week in search of money.

Kingsley Emmanuel, 34, a civil engineer, said the cash scarcity was a real obstacle for many would-be voters.

“They don’t have the cash to pay for a commercial vehicle and most of them don’t accept (money) transfer,” he said from a polling station in the city of Yola in Yola city in Adamawa state. “So it is very difficult for them to access their polling unit.”

The vote is being carefully watched as Nigeria is Africa's largest economy and one of the continent's top oil producers. By 2050, the U.N. estimates that Nigeria will tie with the United States as the third most populous nation in the world after India and China.

It is also home to one of the largest youth populations in the world: About 64 million of its 210 million people are between the ages of 18 and 35, with a median age of only 18.

Favour Ben, 29, who owns a food business in the capital, Abuja, said she was was backing third-party candidate Peter Obi.

“Obi knows what Nigerians need,” she said. “He knows what is actually disturbing us and I believe he knows how to tackle it.”

Thirty-five year-old businessman, Murtala Mohammed said he's expecting something positive to come from this election. “People know that life is hard and everybody is suffering," he said.

Buhari's tenure was marked by concerns about his ailing health and frequent trips abroad for medical treatment. Two of the top candidates are in their 70s and both have been in Nigerian politics since 1999.

By contrast, at 61, Obi of the Labour party is the youngest of the front-runners and had surged in the polls in the weeks leading up to Saturday's vote.

Still, Bola Tinubu has the strong support of the ruling All Progressives Congress party as an important backer of the incumbent president. And Atiku Abubakar has the name recognition of being one of Nigeria's richest businessmen, having also served as a vice president and presidential hopeful in 2019 for his Peoples Democratic Party.

Analysts have said it is one of Nigeria’s most unpredictable elections, with Obi as the surprise candidate in what is usually a two-horse race. But the ruling party’s Tinubu insisted Saturday he would prevail.

Asked if he would congratulate the winner of the election if it is not him, Tinubu retorted: “It has to be me!”

Abubakar also told reporters after voting Saturday that he was “very optimistic” about this year’s election.

For the first time this year Nigeria's election results will be transmitted electronically to headquarters in Abuja, a step officials say will reduce voter fraud. Officials also say they'll be enforcing a ban on mobile phones inside voting booths to prevent vote-buying: images of the votes are usually sent as proof if people have received money to pick a certain candidate.

The full impact of Nigeria's currency crisis on Saturday's election was not immediately clear, though officials said they'd been able to get much of the money the government needed to carry out the vote. In Lagos, a policewoman who was in a bank queue to withdraw cash told The Associated Press on Thursday she has not been able to go where she was deployed for election duty because she could not get cash.

Some who traveled long distances to vote said once they arrived at the polls there was nowhere to withdraw money. "Thank God for my friend in the market that helped me with a little token, if not for him, I wouldn’t have been here,” said Onyekwere Goodness at a polling station in Agulu.

After officials in November announced the decision to redesign Nigeria's currency, the naira, new bills have been slow to circulate. At the same time, older bank notes stopped being accepted, creating a shortage in a country where many use cash for daily transactions.

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Yesica Fisch in Yola, Haruna Umar in Maiduguri and Dan Ikpoyi in Agulu, and Krista Larson in Dakar, Senegal, contributed to this report.