The last-minute postponement on April 2 of Nigeria's parliamentary elections raises the stakes in an already tense election cycle that will also decide whether President Goodluck Jonathan, a Christian from the country's oil-rich Niger Delta region, will stay in power for the next four years.
The decision by Nigeria's election commission to push voting back by a week because key election materials had not been properly distributed was met by support, from both Jonathan's People's Democratic Party and the leading opposition party, the Action Congress of Nigeria, according to this Bloomberg News report.
However, questions remain about the extent to which fraud or foul play may be afoot, especially since polling stations had apparently already opened in some areas on April 2. That date had originally been slated as the first day of voting in a three-tiered election, with the presidential contest and local elections to follow in the following weeks.