ABUJA, Nigeria (Reuters) -- Nigeria's presidential election was so badly flawed that it should be cancelled and held again, the biggest local election observer group said on Sunday.

"We are going to call for a rerun of elections. You cannot use the result from half of the country to announce a new president," Innocent Chukwuma, chairman of the Transition Monitoring Group, told Reuters.

He said the official electoral commission had not been prepared for Saturday's vote.

"In many parts of the country elections did not start on time or did not start at all," Chukwuma said.

The election was marred by violence, intimidation and fraud, a far cry from the credible democratic vote many had hoped would usher in the first handover from one civilian president to another since Nigerian independence from Britain in 1960.

European Union observers have also expressed concern about Saturday's vote, saying they had witnessed violence, ballot stuffing and a big shortfall in voting slips.

Polling stations in some areas did not open until just before the closing time of 5 p.m. (1600 GMT).

First results emerging in the northwestern state of Sokoto on Sunday showed the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) ahead, as is widely expected across the country.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/africa/04/22/nigeria.elections.reut/index.html