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Story highlights Vote-counting postponed until Tuesday morning, election leader says in tweet Partial vote count shows opposition candidate leading in Nigeria, Reuters reports Incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan and retired Gen. Muhammadu Buhari faced off in election

Reuters, which has collated results from three-quarters of Nigeria's states as they're broadcast live on state TV, reported that Buhari has so far obtained 11.5 million votes, Jonathan 9.5 million.

Electoral officers from each of the 36 states are taking turns declaring results from their respective states at the Independent National Electoral Commission.

The vote count was stopped Monday night and will resume at 10 a.m. Tuesday (5 a.m. ET), according to a tweet from Attahiru Jega, the chairman of the electoral commission. Jega will be the one to announce final results.

Violent protests after Nigeria's presidential elections Saturday sparked calls for calm from the two main candidates and a warning by the United States and Britain against political interference.

Protesters fired gunshots and torched a local electoral office in Nigeria's oil-rich Rivers state on Sunday as they marched to protest the elections, amid claims of vote-rigging and voter intimidation.

Heavy rain eventually forced the protesters to leave, but there are fears it will take more than rain to stop further protests and violence. More than 800 people were killed in post-election violence across Nigeria's north in 2011 after charges that those elections were illegitimate.

Now Nigeria has just held what are thought to be the closest elections since a return to democracy in 1999 after decades of military rule. The two main candidates are incumbent Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party and retired Buhari of All Progressives Congress.

Goodluck Jonathan, left, and Mohammadu Buhari renewed pledges for peaceful elections on March 26.

Jonathan and Buhari last week issued a pledge reaffirming their commitment to "free, fair and credible elections" after their signing of the Abuja Accord in January.

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Opposition candidate appears ahead in Nigerian election