9 April 2011 Last updated at 18:16 GMT (source: BBC)
Security was tight in polling stations across Nigeria amid concerns over violence
Nigeria: Vote counting begins after parliamentary polls
Security was tight in polling stations across Nigeria amid concerns over violenceNigerian officials have begun counting votes from the parliamentary election in Africa's most populous nation.
The election, which had been postponed twice in the space of a week, was marred by sporadic violence but was generally peaceful.
An EU observer said there was "almost no disorder and no intimidation" during the vote.
About 73.5m were registered to vote, with President Goodluck Jonathan's PDP battling to maintain its majority.
Security was tight, with armed police guarding polling stations, borders closed and flights grounded.
But at least three people died in a bomb attack at a polling station in the north-eastern city of Maiduguri - and the Maiduguri International Hotel was set alight.
And in Borno state, gunmen shot dead a local politician.
Polling had to be abandoned last week after election material failed to reach many areas.
'Better organised'The BBC's Caroline Duffield in Lagos says that many voters were nervous after a chaotic and violent build-up to the polls.
In the end, it was generally peaceful, and election chiefs will be relieved the day compares well to the disastrous rigging and violence of the 2007 general election, our correspondent says.
One resident, Owoale Adedeji, said the country was "still upgrading our democracy because we are still not very strong".
"But as time goes on and by the time we see the outcome of this election, then we will be able to know where we are and where we are going," he told the BBC.
Although some officials failed to turn up on time, observers said the organisation was better than last week.
"There was almost no disorder and no intimidation," the head of a European Union observer mission, Alojz Peterle, told Reuters from his initial reports.
EU observers said the last nationwide elections, held in 2007, were not credible.
Voting - for 360 seats in the lower chamber, and 109 in the Senate - had already begun last Saturday, and millions were queuing, when it was discovered that ballot papers were missing in some parts of the country, prompting delays due to the difficulty of replacing ballot papers.
The elected positions remain highly lucrative, with more than $1m (£610,000) in salaries and benefits, according to AP news agency.
Various issues have resulted in three separate announcements of postponements, while the elections for president and state governors have also been set back.
Mr Jonathan is widely expected to win the forthcoming presidential poll, but his People's Democratic Party is under pressure to stave off a cut in its majority in the National Assembly.
The presidential elections have been put back a week to 16 April, with polls to choose the 36 powerful state governors now to be held on 26 April.
On Friday, a bomb blast at the election commission's office in Suleja, 20 km (12 miles) from the capital Abuja, killed at least 10 people.
Nigeria: A nation divided
The People's Democratic Party (PDP) has won all elections since the end of military rule in 1999. It won two-thirds of Nigeria's 36 states last time. But having a southerner - President Goodluck Jonathan - as its candidate in the presidential elections may lose it some votes in the north
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