Voting delayed in Nigeria

"Missing materials" is the cause for the reason of the voting delay for parliamentary elections in Nigeria, officials say. Polls opened on Saturday, but were suddenly postponed for another two days, as not all areas of the country, including the capital city, had received the necessary items. This is a major blow to the country, which already has a history of electoral chaos and fraud.

A spokesperson for Muhammadu Buhari, the major opponent to Goodluck Jonathan, thinks sabotage was involved. He claims that Jonathan's party is afraid to have people come and vote. Others believe the delay was caused by materials not arriving from outside of the country in time. A statement has been realized claiming there will be no problem proceeding with elections on Monday.

Lines of people in the country's two largest cities became distraught. Gunshots were fired in the volatile Niger Delta raised worries of violence.

The fact that the country cannot coordinate it's own elections effectively is a testament to the current state Nigeria is in. In other countries we have studied, we haven't seen such mass chaos and unorganization from the highest levels of government. It would be very interesting to look at Mexico during their next election, to see how their government handles elections during a time of turmoil. I think that the two countries are comparable in terms of violence and unrest, but it's hard to believe that Mexico wouldn't be able to carry out an election. Hopefully Nigeria can pull itself together enough for the presidential elections next week.