Election commission chief says polls in Kaduna and Bauchi will be delayed by two days because of security concerns
Nigerian officials have delayed gubernatorial elections in two predominantly Muslim northern states that have been wracked by riots and retaliatory violence since the presidential election was won by Goodluck Jonathan, a Christian from the country's south.
Attahiru Jega, chief of Nigeria's independent election commission, said that polls cannot go ahead as scheduled next Tuesday in the states of Kaduna and Bauchi because of security concerns, and that the votes will be delayed there by two days.
The announcement came hours after President Jonathan vowed in a televised address to the nation that the elections for state governors would go ahead as scheduled in 31 of Nigeria's 36 states. Polls in the other five states had already been postponed ahead of the presidential election that sparked violence.
Muslim rioters burned homes, churches and police stations after results showed Nigeria's Christian president had beaten his closest Muslim opponent in Saturday's vote. Reprisal attacks by Christians began almost immediately. The main roads outside Kaduna were dotted with charred corpses bearing machete wounds.
Authorities have been fearful of releasing casualty figures for fear of sparking more reprisals, but more than 100 have been killed and 40,000 have fled their homes.
Jega said officials hoped that the delay "will allow further cooling of tempers and for the security situation in those states to continue to improve".
Nigeria has a long history of violent and rigged polls since it abandoned a revolving door of military rulers and embraced democracy 12 years ago. However, observers said Saturday's presidential election largely appeared to be fair, and the US state department said it was a significant improvement on the last poll in 2007.