Nigeria elections: Deadly blast hits Suleja office Published duration 8 April 2011

A bomb blast has killed at least six people at the office of Nigeria's election commission in the central town of Suleja, hours before polls are due to open for parliamentary elections.

A BBC reporter in Abuja says it is likely many people were in the office, preparing for voting on Saturday.

Officials said the blast appeared to be a bomb which struck a day after one person died in a bomb blast in Kaduna.

Gunmen meanwhile killed four people in the northern state of Borno.

The dead included an official from the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP), who had been preparing to distribute election materials on Friday hours ahead of the parliamentary polls, police say.

Several other explosive devices have been defused by the security forces, who had earlier warned of a plot to disrupt the election.

Voting was supposed to begin last weekend but was delayed in some areas.

Voting postponed

The blast hit Suleja - just 20 km (12 miles) from the capital Abuja - at about 1800 (1800 GMT), and a senior election commission official told the BBC he was making frantic efforts to contact election workers who had been working in the building and were still unaccounted for.

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan condemned the "heinous bomb attack" and ordered an immediate increase in security at all electoral commission premises across the country.

A statement from the president's office said the dead included members of the National Youth Service Corps who had been "engaged in preparatory work for the conduct of free, fair and credible elections in the country".

The BBC's Caroline Duffield in Nigeria says Suleja was the target of a bomb some weeks ago, when men hurled a bomb towards an election rally from a moving car.

The build-up to Nigeria's elections has been violent, adds our correspondent, with attacks on party offices in the Niger Delta, bomb blasts, and the assassination of an election candidate in the north-eastern city of Maiduguri.

At least 85 people have lost their lives in political violence linked to the elections, according to Human Rights Watch, the campaign group.

Voting had already begun last Saturday, and millions were queuing, when it was discovered that ballot papers were missing in some parts of the country.

The vote was postponed again in those areas, because it was not possible to replace ballot papers in time. The elections for president and state governors have also been set back.

Previous elections held since the 1999 end of military rule have been characterised by allegations of widespread fraud and violence.