尼日利亚总统选举延迟一天

 　　ABUJA, NIGERIA—Millions of Nigerians turned out to choose a new president Saturday, but technical problems with a new computerized anti-fraud system caused delays and long lines and prompted officials to extend voting into Sunday.

　　It was unclear how widespread the problems were, but the decision to extend the vote, which pits incumbent 1 Goodluck Jonathan against his main rival, Muhammadu Buhari, added more uncertainty 2 to an already tense election campaign.
　　Officials had already postponed 3 the vote in February, citing security concerns from the Boko Haram insurgency 4, which has ravaged 5 the country's northeast.
　　Technical Problems Mar 6 Nigerian Election; Voting Extended By a Day
　　Voting Saturday was marred 7 by an attack by suspected Boko Haram insurgents 8 in the northeastern state of Gombe. Witnesses told VOA that gunmen attacked three villages in the state, killing 9 at least 24 people.
　　Insurgents also killed 25 people in a Borno state village, in the northeast, on Friday, Governor Kashim Settima said.
　　Voting problems
　　Jonathan and the ruling Peoples Democratic Party are facing a tough challenge from Buhari and his opposition 10 backers, the All Progressives Congress.
　　Past elections have been marred by allegations of vote rigging. Violence after the disputed 2011 elections, which also featured Buhari challenging Jonathan, killed some 800 people.
　　Election officials have touted 11 a new biometric voter card system as insurance against fraud, but in some places, the hand-held readers appeared to malfunction 12.
　　Many polling stations opened late because of delays in getting voting materials and problems with the accreditation 13 process. Polling places from Lagos, Nigeria's largest city, to Potiskum, in the country's far northeast, reported problems with the hand-held scanners.
　　As of Saturday night, the problems seemed to be more sporadic 14 than systematic 15.
　　In the central city of Kaduna, people brought mats to polling stations to lie down and wait as voting continued into the night.
　　"As long as I can wait, even in the night, I'm willing to cast my vote. And I'm sure everybody on the queue is willing to cast his vote, no matter the time," said Abba Galadima, a civil servant.
　　Voters at one station in Lagos told VOA they waited in line for several hours while election workers looked for a machine that would work.
　　Jonathan, who cast his vote in the southern town of Otuoke, needed 30 minutes to go through the process.
　　At a station on the outskirts 16 of the capital, Abuja, a VOA reporter watched officials struggle with the card-reader machines, trying to verify voter fingerprints 17. Some staff had voters use several different fingers, trying them multiple times but still not succeeding. Officials urged voters to wipe their fingers or wash their hands to try to fix the issue.
　　“Any government that is coming in, we want a change," said Yusuf Oriolow, 30. "We just need a change and we are changing Nigeria for better. That is what I see today.”
　　In Kano, a city of 2 million located around 300 miles north of Abuja, a VOA reporter visited multiple polling stations Saturday morning but found only one that had working card readers. About 100 people lined up at the station, waiting to cast their ballots 18, as well as a handful of security personnel and agents from the electoral commission.
　　Scuffles broke out in Rivers state in the southern Niger Delta 19 over missing results sheets amid already high tensions and concerns about vote rigging. Election officials suspended voting in one area, and the state governor refused to vote.
　　A car bomb went off near a polling station in southeastern Enugu state, though no injuries were reported.?
　　The Independent National Electoral Commission announced that because of the technical problems, voting would be extended into Sunday.
　　"Whereas the process has gone on well in several places, in some others it has encountered some challenges, especially with the use of the card readers," the commission said in a statement on its website. "Consequently, accreditation has been slow in many places and has not commenced at all in some others."
　　Despite the delays, however, the vote appeared to be proceeding 20 calmly.
　　"You can see the enthusiasm amongst the people. We want to exercise our vote," voter Samuel Eke 21 told VOA in the southern city of Port Harcourt. "We have all the hope that materials were sent out to the various units. So maybe we'll give them some time."
　　The electoral commission's website went offline earlier Saturday when a hacker 22 group calling itself the Nigerian Cyber Army attacked it, posting a message warning officials not to rig the polls.
　　Earlier in the week, both Jonathan and Buhari pledged to respect the outcome of the election as long as it was "free, fair and credible 23."
　　Jonathan, 57, is a Christian 24 from the Niger Delta oil region in the south, while Buhari, 72, is a Muslim from the north. Pre-election polls showed the two in a very close race.
　　Preliminary results may be announced Sunday, though a final certified 25 tally 26 was not expected before Monday at the earliest.
　　Delayed in February
　　The vote was postponed in mid-February because of fighting and insecurity in the northeast where the Boko Haram insurgency has raged since 2009. The government's inability to stop the Islamist extremist group was a major issue during the campaign.
　　Security across Nigeria was tightened 27 leading up to the election amid concerns that insurgents could attack polling stations.
　　In recent weeks, a multinational 28 offensive drove Boko Haram from most of the towns it controlled in the northeast. On Friday, the Nigerian military said soldiers took back the town of Gwoza and destroyed the headquarters of Boko Haram's self-declared caliphate.
　　U.S. intelligence officials expressed caution about the report, saying that even if the militants 29 had retreated, it did not necessarily mean they were near defeat.
　　Intelligence officials told VOA that Boko Haram has used strategic retreats in the past, only to wait, sometimes for weeks or more, for an opportunity to launch a devastating 30 counterattack.
　　Stein and Ahmed reported from Kano. Also contributing was Katarina Hoije in Lagos, Ardo Hazzad in Bauchi, Ibrahima Yakubu in Kaduna, Kareem Haruna in Maiduguri and Hilary Uguru in Port Harcourt.