
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, June 14, 1993                   TAG: 9306140186
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: LAGOS, NIGERIA                                LENGTH: Short

NIGERIAN ELECTIONS GET 30 PERCENT TURNOUT

A publishing baron running for president won Nigeria's biggest state, partial election returns showed Sunday. His opponent - who was barred from voting - lost his home region.

An estimated 30 percent of the registered voters cast ballots in a widely ridiculed election staged by the dictatorship of Gen. Ibrahim Babangida.

The two candidates are wealthy businessmen and close friends of Babangida, who created their political parties and banned all legitimate parties from running.

Final results were not expected until at least Tuesday in Nigeria's attempt to transfer power from the military regime to a civilian government.

But the early returns from the Saturday election were good news for Moshood K.O. Abiola of the Social Democrats, who was running against Bashir Othman Tofa, of the Republican party. - Associated Press

by CNB