Jonathan takes commanding lead in Nigerian election

Nigeria’s incumbent president, Goodluck Jonathan has taken a commanding lead in his country’s weekend presidential election, with nearly all votes counted. Jonathan became president after his predecessor died in office last year, and had long been considered the front-runner as his ruling People's Democratic Party has dominated politics in the West African for a dozen years.

Nigeria has a long history of violent and rigged polls, and legislative elections earlier this month left a hotel ablaze, a politician dead and a polling station and a vote-counting center bombed in the nation's northeast.

Observers largely said Saturday's poll appeared to be fair, even the fairest on record since the country embraced democracy more than a decade ago.

Speaking ahead of the polling, the former president of Botswana and the chief Commonwealth observer, Festus Mogae said the success of the election would have important repercussions for Nigeria and throughout Africa. “What happens in Nigeria catches the attention of the whole world,” he said.

Jonathan easily won the country’s mostly Christian south, though some people in the mainly Muslim north remain hesitant about Jonathan as the Christian from the south who took over after the death of the country's elected Muslim leader. Many of the north's elite wanted the ruling party to honor an unwritten power-sharing agreement calling for a Muslim candidate to run in this election, yet Jonathan prevailed in the party's primary.

Listen to Chris Altieri's report: