An election official uses a fingerprint reader at a polling station Saturday in Abuja, Nigeria. Technological problems forced an extension in the presidential vote. (Nichole Sobecki, AFP/Getty Images)
ABUJA, nigeria — Boko Haram extremists killed 41 people, including a legislator, and scared hundreds of people from polling stations, but millions still voted across Nigeria Saturday in the most closely contested presidential race in the nation's history.
All the Boko Haram attacks took place in northeastern Nigeria, where the military Friday announced it had cleared the Islamic extremists from all major centers, including the headquarters of their so-called Islamic caliphate.
Nearly 60 million people have cards to vote. For the first time, there is a possibility that a challenger can defeat a sitting president in the high-stakes contest to govern Africa's richest and most populous nation.
FILE - In this Thursday, March 26, 2015 file photo, Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan, left, and opposition candidate Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, right, prepare to sign a renewal of their pledge to hold peaceful "free, fair, and credible" elections, at a hotel in the capital Abuja, Nigeria. Nigeria has extended voting to Sunday, March 28, 2015 after problems occurred as millions turned out Saturday to vote in a presidential election that analysts say is too close to call between President Goodluck Jonathan and former military dictator Muhammadu Buhari. (AP | Ben Curtis)
The front-runners among 14 candidates are President Goodluck Jonathan and former military dictator Muhammadu Buhari.
Voters also are electing 360 legislators to the House of Assembly, where the opposition has a slight edge over Jonathan's party.
Nigeria's political landscape was transformed two years ago when the main opposition parties formed a coalition and united behind one candidate, Buhari. Dozens of legislators defected from Jonathan's party.
Polling will continue Sunday in some areas where new machines largely failed to read voters' biometric cards, said Kayode Idowu, spokesman of the Independent National Electoral Commission. That includes some areas of Lagos, a megacity of 20 million and Nigeria's commercial capital on the Atlantic coast.
In other areas, vote counting ended Saturday night, with blackouts that are routine forcing some officials to count by the light of vehicles and cellphones.
Earlier, before dawn, Boko Haram extremists invaded the town of Miringa in Borno state, torching people's homes and then shooting them as they tried to escape. Twenty-five people died in the attack, Borno state Gov. Kashim Shettima said at a news conference in the city of Maiduguri.
Main opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate Mohammadu Buhari speaks after casting his vote at a polling station in the "Gidan Niyam Sakin Yara A ward" at Daura in Katsina State on March 28, 2015. Voting began in Nigeria's general election but delays were reported countrywide because of technical problems in accrediting electors. AFP PHOTO/PIUS UTOMI EKPEIPIUS UTOMI EKPEI/AFP/Getty Images (AFP | PIUS UTOMI EKPEI)
"They had sent messages earlier warning us not to encourage democracy by participating in today's election," said Mallam Garba Buratai, a Miringa resident who witnessed the attack. Nigeria's Islamic extremists say democracy is a corrupt Western concept.
Another 14 people were killed in extremist attacks on the town of Biri and Dukku, in Gombe state, according to police and local chief Garkuwan Dukku. Among the dead was a Gombe state legislator, Umaru Ali, said Sani Dugge, the local campaign director for the opposition coalition.
Two voters were killed in Boko Haram attacks on polling stations in the twin Gombe towns of Birin Bolawa and Birin Fulani, according to police.
The candidates
Goodluck Jonathan
The 57-year-old incumbent and ruling party candidate was re-elected in 2011 with an easy margin of millions of votes over rival Muhammadu Buhari. Jonathan's insistence on running again after he was presented as the sole candidate at engineered party primaries has torn apart his party, which experienced dozens of high-level defections to a new opposition coalition.
Muhammadu Buhari
The 72-year-old who ousted a democratically elected government first came to power in a 1983 coup. His regime executed drug dealers, returned looted state assets and sent soldiers to the streets with whips to enforce traffic laws. Some worry the perennial candidate, running for president for the fourth time, could return to his autocratic ways.
The Associated Press
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