{UAH} Nigeria’s Presidential Race Stretches to Another Day - NYTimes.com
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KANO, Nigeria — The most competitive presidential race ever in Africa's largest democracy continued to play out late into Monday night, with the incumbent president facing a tough challenge as voting results poured in from distant states in this crowded and chaotic land.
With results in from just over half of Nigeria's 36 states and the capital, the challenger, a retired general who once ruled Nigeria as a military dictator, led by about two million votes in official results. Late Monday, the electoral commission in the capital, Abuja, adjourned the counting, announcing that it would continue Tuesday morning.
But already Mr. Jonathan's challenger, Muhammadu Buhari, had swept critical competitive states in the country's southwest. A belated convert to democracy, Mr. Buhari was also piling up large vote totals, as expected, in his native north, crushing the incumbent here in Nigeria's second-largest city.
If Mr. Jonathan is ousted and power is handed over peacefully, it will signal a historic shift in Nigeria — the first-ever transfer of power between civilians of different parties in a country that has spent much of its post-colonial history roiled by military coups and ruled by their instigators.
It could mean the beginning of a competitive two-party system on a continent where this remains a rarity. International election observers here said Saturday's vote had generally been conducted well.
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