Nigeria votes for democracy

These elections were a good result for Nigeria, breaking the PDP's hold, and offering a glimmer of hope to its people

• • Ike Okonta
  • guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 13 April 2011 19.00 BST
  • Article history

'That Nigeria's elections were held at all is a remarkable achievement.' Photograph: Akintunde Akinleye/Reuters
Nigeria's legislative elections, to be followed by a presidential poll on 16 April, indicate that the ruling People's Democratic party (PDP) has lost its near-total grip on the country's politics. Of the four main opposition parties that fielded candidates for the 469 parliamentary seats in contention, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) took the bulk of the votes in the south-west of the country, felling such PDP stalwarts as house speaker Dimeji Bankole and Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, daughter of the former president Olusegun Obasanjo. The PDP did, however, fend off challenges in the oil-producing Niger Delta, President Goodluck Jonathan's home region. It also held its own in the predominantly Igbo south-east and the middle belt, home to several small ethnic groups.Continued