© Seyllou Diallo/AFP/Getty Images
People holding wooden and metal sticks demonstrate in Nigeria's northern city of Kano where running battles broke out between protesters and soldiers as President Goodluck Jonathan headed for an election win.
Nigeria's incumbent leader Goodluck Jonathan won the presidential election as violent protests against the result killed at least six, underscoring the political frailty in Africa's biggest oil producer.
Jonathan, 53, a Christian from the oil-rich Niger River delta region, won 22.5 million, or 57 percent, of the votes cast, compared with 12.2 million, or 31 percent, for former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari, a northern Muslim, the electoral commission said.
Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation with 150 million residents, is roughly split between a mostly Muslim north and a largely Christian south, a divide reflected in voting for the April 16 election. Jonathan will need to convince northerners that he is a credible ruler for all Nigerians while relying on a divided legislature to pass laws to regulate oil exploration and promote investment in the industry.
"The polarized north-south results of the election underline a looming political and cultural divide in the country, which may lead to further tension," Sebastian Boe, a political analyst at IHS Inc. (IHS) in London, said in a e-mailed note.
Opposition supporters in several northern cities burned buildings and attacked members of the ruling People's Democratic Party after results yesterday showed that Jonathan would win the election. A police station and a church in the northern town of Kaduna were burned, and riots spread from Gombe to towns including Bauchi, Zaria, Azare and Potiskum, a police spokesman for the region, Suleiman Lawal, said yesterday.
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