ABUJA, April 13: Early returns on Sunday from Nigeria’s legislative election confirmed the country’s divisive ethnic rivalries but there was less violence than many feared.

President Olusegun Obasanjo fared well in his southwestern Yoruba heartland although his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was roundly defeated in Lagos, Nigeria’s teeming commercial capital.

Saturday’s vote was the country’s first since Obasanjo’s election in 1999 ended 15 years of army rule.

First results showed a low turnout of about 30 percent during the rain-affected voting. There were 60 million registered voters in Africa’s most populous state.

Sketchy reports from around the vast country said there were between eight and 13 deaths caused by election violence. If confirmed, that would be a modest toll by Nigerian standards.

“The first day of a series of elections was held in a climate that can be described as generally violence free,” election observers from South Africa’s IDASA group said.

With only 27 of the 360 seats in the House of Representatives declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Obasanjo’s party had won 22 of them.

A much larger number of unofficial results compiled by Reuters on Sunday evening was less one-sided. The PDP had won in 43 of 82 constituencies and had secured 11 of 15 seats in the 109-member Senate.

The Alliance for Democracy (AD), the PDP’s rival for votes among millions of the Yoruba ethnic group, was running second with 24 House seats thanks to a near clean sweep in Lagos. But the main opposition party, the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), was well ahead in its northern and mainly Muslim strongholds with 15 House seats.

Political analysts said the pattern showed ethnic and regional factors would be crucial in the April 19 presidential vote when Obasanjo’s main challenger will be northern Muslim Muhamadu Buhari.

Both men are former military leaders. Nigeria has had little political stability since independence from Britain in 1960. —Reuters