Nigerian ruling party loses ground in poll

Nigeria's ruling party looked set to see its parliamentary majority weaken as results trickled in yesterday from an election Africa's most populous nation hopes will be its first credible vote in almost two decades.
Election officials and party agents tallied results from 120,000 polling units stretching from the oil-producing mangrove swamps and teeming cities near the southern coast to the dustblown fringes of the Sahara desert in the north.
"I think it is fair to say this was a real election. It was a real vote," Kenneth Wollack, president of the National Democratic Institute told Reuters.