Police fired tear gas cannisters to disperse hundreds of women who support the All Progressives Congress on Monday as they tried to march to the electoral office in Port Harcourt, the state capital. On Saturday thousands protested peacefully in the city.
“We are only asking for our votes to be respected and they answer us with tear gas,” protester Ibiene Dagogo, a 35-year-old seamstress, said after she fled the D-Line Junction on Aba Road where police blocked the demonstrators.
The election, a key test of stability in Africa’s largest oil producer, pitted President Goodluck Jonathan, 57, and his People’s Democratic Party, against a united opposition APC led by former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari, 72. The PDP has governed since the army relinquished power in 1999.
A coalition of civil-society groups monitoring the election, known as the Situation Room, said in a statement on Monday it’s received reports of politicians trying to use Nigeria’s national security agencies to interfere with the vote-counting process.

‘Calm Down’

“There should have been statements from both parties telling people to calm down,” Folarin Gbadebo-Smith, managing director of the Center for Public Policy Alternatives in Lagos, the commercial capital, said by phone. “They are still in combat mode. This is no time to be stirring up emotions.”
The election took place against the backdrop of a six-year insurgency waged by the Islamist militant group, Boko Haram, and a plunge in the price of oil, Nigeria’s biggest export.
Fitch Ratings cut Nigeria’s credit-rating outlook to negative on Monday, citing the drop in oil prices and the tight election contest, while affirming the country’s BB- rating, three steps below investment grade.
The naira was unchanged at 199.05 per dollar at 10:16 a.m. on Monday in Lagos. The Nigerian Stock Exchange All Share Index was little changed.
While the electoral agency conceded there had been organizational faults, the vote was the most credible to have been staged in Nigeria, Gbadebo-Smith said.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, or INEC, said the first set of results will be announced at about midday on Monday.

‘Many Complaints’

“We have received many complaints and allegations” that will be investigated, INEC Chairman Attahiru Jega, told reporters in Abuja on Sunday evening. “We are concerned about what seems to be happening in Rivers state. We believe we have done our best, not underestimating the challenges we faced. On the whole we have done very well.”
The vote was extended for a second day on Sunday at about 300 of the more than 100,000 polling points, where the late arrival of officials and faulty biometric voter-card readers caused delays on Saturday.
At least 43 people were killed in violent incidents on Saturday, according to provisional data from the Situation Room.
It described voting delays as “unacceptable” and said reports of interference in the process in Rivers and Imo states were “deeply” concerning.
“In spite of hitches with the card readers and delays in the accreditation process, the voters were remarkably patient,” Yvonne Mhango, a Johannesburg-based economist at Renaissance Capital, said in an e-mailed response to questions. “If the conduct of the electorate remains the same over the next 24 hours, I’d imagine the markets will react positively.”

Rivers Complaints

Buhari’s party has painted Jonathan’s government as corrupt, incompetent and incapable of defeating Boko Haram, which has killed at least 1,000 people this year, according to Human Rights Watch. The PDP says Buhari is too old and human rights abuses were rife during his tenure between 1983 and 1985.
The APC called for an annulment of the vote in the southern Rivers state, alleging that its supporters had been arrested and intimidated, while election officials, police and the ruling party colluded to distort the outcome.
“In substance, there was no election in Rivers state,” Ibim Semenitari, a spokeswoman for Governor Rotimi Amaechi, said in an e-mailed statement on Sunday. Amaechi defected from the PDP to the APC in 2013.

‘Exercise Patience’

Buhari, in a post on his Twitter account Sunday, called on Nigerians to “exercise patience and vigilance as we wait for all results to be announced.”
An unofficial tally of 1.2 million votes by Nigeriaelections.org, supported by the U.K.’s development ministry and West African NGO Network, gave Buhari 66 percent and Jonathan 33 percent. About 56 million of the 68.8 million registered voters were issued cards that enabled them to cast ballots.
To win, a presidential contender must take at least 50 percent of the total vote while winning a quarter of the ballots in a minimum of 24 of the 36 states. If none of the 14 candidates secure such a victory, a run-off would be held within seven days after the results are announced.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon described the elections as “largely peaceful” and orderly, and said he was “encouraged by the determination and resilience shown by the Nigerian people.”
Two African observer missions cited isolated incidents of violence.
“The African Union concludes that elections have been conducted in a peaceful atmosphere,” Amos Sawyer, the head of the continental group’s observer mission, told reporters in Abuja, the capital Sunday.
The Economic Community for West African States, a 16-nation regional group, said in a statement that the vote was peaceful and orderly and the organization was “generally acceptable.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Dulue Mbachu in Port Harcourt at dmbachu@bloomberg.net; Paul Wallace in Lagos at pwallace25@bloomberg.net; Pauline Bax in Abuja at pbax@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nasreen Seria at nseria@bloomberg.net Chris Kay, Karl Maier