By Tume Ahemba and Anamesere Igboeroteonwu
AWKA/ONITSHA, Nigeria (Reuters) - Candidates and voters decried widespread irregularities in a Nigerian state election on Saturday, casting doubt on the country's ability to organise 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 chaos seen during the 2007 elections which brought President Umaru Yar'Adua to power, polls marred by widespread ballot-stuffing and voter intimidation.
But so far the vote appears to have been even more chaotic.
Would-be voters across the state complained their names were not on electoral rolls. Local observers said false names such as "Nelson Mandela" were on lists that appeared to have been tampered with while legitimate voters were turned away.
The four main candidates complained of huge irregularities. The vast majority of residents in Anambra are from the Ibo ethnic group but one candidate, Uche Ekwunife, said the register included many out-of-state Hausa and Yoruba names.
"I came out to vote and found out that in my own polling booth I am the only member of my family whose name is on the register. My brothers and my sisters, every other person's name is not there. This is very, very worrisome," incumbent governor Peter Obi told reporters after refusing to cast his vote.
"Information reaching me is that it is the same case all over the state. The consequence is that if this is allowed to go on, over 80 percent of the people will be disenfranchised and if that is the case then I will not vote," he said.
Reuters reporters visited more than a dozen polling stations in local government areas across the state where there was similar confusion, with scores of names missing from voter lists.
Anambra has a history of political violence. Police and soldiers manned joint roadblocks around the state but there were no immediate reports of serious unrest.
"There are lots of complaints. This is going to be worse than 2007. There seems to be a deliberate exclusion of the majority of voters," said Chikuike Mgbeahurike, an observer for the CSCC coalition of local civil society groups.
LEGAL DOUBT HANGS OVER POLL
The run-up to the poll had already been turbulent. Most of the main parties chose their candidates without conducting primaries, sparking internal-party wrangling in a state that styles itself as the "Pride of the Nation.
There is also a legal question mark over the vote after a court in Lagos ruled on Thursday that the INEC, Nigeria's electoral commission, was not competent to organise polls because its board did not have the minimum number of members required under the constitution.
"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.
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 hand over formally 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 entire neighbouring countries -- and key players in party conventions at which presidential candidates are chosen.
Anambra is one of eight opposition states the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) is anxious to take 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.
(Writing by Nick Tattersall; editing by Andrew Roche/David Stamp)
