A headline on the election agency’s website said it had been “struck by Nigerian Cyber Army,” and “INEC don’t try to rig because we have been watching you day and night for months now.”

 

Kayode Idowu, a spokesman for INEC, confirmed by phone the website had been hacked.

 

Voting Delays

 

Nigerians faced long delays as they tried to register to vote in elections on Saturday as officials failed to turn up and equipment malfunctioned at polling centers across the country.

 

At some polling stations officials from the Independent National Electoral Commission didn’t arrive on time for the 8 a.m. official start of the registration process, Clement Nwankwo, executive director of the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre, who is monitoring the ballot, said by phone. A number of voter card readers also weren’t working, he said.

 

Provisional data show that the poll process started late at 31 percent of stations, Agianpe Ashang, coordinator of the PLAC, said in interview in Abuja. In Karu, a southeastern district outside of Abuja, INEC workers only arrived About 9:30 am.

 

“We came here around 7 a.m.,” Celestina Emehel, 54, a primary school teacher said as she queued to register in Karu. “We thought that by this time they should have started the election. The day will be long. I don’t think they will finish before 7 p.m.”

 

Nigerians are voting in what is expected to be the tightest election since the military relinquished power in 1999. Former military dictator Muhammadu Buhari, a 72-year-old northern Muslim who’s lost three previous elections, is trying to end the reign of the People’s Democratic Party, which has governed Nigeria since the end of army rule. Standing in his way is President Goodluck Jonathan, a 57-year-old Christian from the oil-rich Niger River delta in the southeast who defeated him four years ago.

 

The election commission extended the accreditation process beyond the 1 p.m. cutoff at voting stations where there had been delays, said Kayode Idowu, a spokesman for INEC.