Lagos - An election for governor of Nigeria's Anambra state has been condemned amid reports of vote-buying and ballot-box theft.

Peter Obi was re-elected but just 300,000 people cast their ballots from an electorate of 1.8 million.

Gangs of youths intimidated and harassed voters and snatched three ballot boxes from polling stations.

The chaos has dampened hopes of improvements to Nigeria's voting system ahead of national elections in 2011.

President Umaru Yar'Adua had promised to sort out Nigeria's notoriously corrupt elections after he was elected in a widely-criticised poll in 2007.

Mr Obi had initially refused to vote because he discovered he was the only member of his family whose name appeared on the electoral roll. He later changed his mind.

Many polling stations opened hours late and there were confrontations as voters discovered their names were not on the electoral register.

Mr Obi received almost 98,000 votes - little more than 5% of the total electorate. He is from the All Progressives Grand Alliance, which is in opposition at the federal level.

Officials said they were generally pleased that there had been little violence during the vote.

Those running resource-rich states such as Anambra preside over economies larger than those of some African countries.