ABUJA/LAGOS, April 19: Nigerians voted to elect a president on Saturday hoping for the first successful transfer of civilian power in more than 40 years of independence but there was violence and an opposition-backed boycott in some areas.

Voting was generally peaceful in major cities like Lagos, Kano and Ibadan but opposition officials said six of their supporters were killed in clashes between rival parties in Bayelsa state in the southern delta. Police put the toll at three.

Security was heavy at the 120,000 polling stations in Africa’s most populous state after Nigeria’s police chief threatened politicians and their “thugs” with drastic action if they tried to disrupt voting.

At the official end of polling there were few confirmed reports of serious trouble. But there were numerous arrests for breaches of election law.

“We hope for free and fair elections,” President Olusegun Obasanjo told reporters after he cast his vote in his southwest hometown of Abeokuta.

But there was little voting in huge areas of the south where opposition leaders had called for a voters’ boycott to protest at alleged rigging by Obasanjo’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in parliamentary polls on April 12.

Obasanjo, a born-again Christian, faced a score of challengers but his main opponent was Muhammadu Buhari, a northern Muslim. Both are ex-generals and former military rulers.

“I’m impressed. It was a large turnout. The results may be announced within 48 or 72 hours,” Abel Guobadia, the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), told reporters after touring polling stations in the capital Abuja.—Reuters