The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC,has announced that Nigeria will conduct a "mop-up" voter registration drive Feb. 6-7 to accommodate people who have not registered for the April general elections. The voters Registration have now been extended to Monday, February 7 2011, but in 13 states only. The exercise will be held in places where registration could not begin early "due to communal conflicts, overpopulation, technical or logistical challenges," the electoral body said today in an e-mailed statement.
A voter registration drive was initially scheduled for the two weeks ended Jan. 29 and was extended by a
week because of difficulties experienced at centers across the West African country. The two-day extension will be offered in places including Bauchi and Borno states in northern Nigeria, where sectarian violence has occurred recently.
Nigeria's electoral commission, headed by a respected academic appointed only months ago, deployed computers to take prints from each finger of every voter during the registration process that began on January 15.
The affected states are Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Borno, Benue, Delta, Ekiti, Enugu, Kaduna, Kebbi, Nasarawa, Kogi, Ogun, the Federal Capital Territory, FCT and Zamfara
INEC declared on Thursday that over 55 million Nigerians have registered to vote in the April 2, 9 and 16 National Assembly, Presidential, Governorship and House of Assembly elections.
In a statement issued by Mr. Kayode Idowu, the Chief Press Secretary to the commission's Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, Idowu said: "About 54.9 million people had been registered nationwide as at Monday, January 31, 2010 by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the ongoing voter registration exercise".
At a polling station on Saturday in the sprawling economic capital Lagos, which rivals Cairo as Africa's largest city, two queues with some 20 people each formed, the process hobbled by an erratic power supply.
Someone showed up with a small generator and an idea for a business, offering to laminate registrants' voter cards for 50 naira (.33 US cents, .25 euro cents) since electoral commission workers had run out of plastic sleeves to put them in.
David Ekene, a 20-year-old student, had come to register a few days before but had to return Saturday to pick up his voter card because there was no electricity to operate the printer on his first visit.
But despite the problems, he and others said they believed the process was running well enough. Ekene said he hoped violence that has marred previous elections would not happen again.
"People don't like coming out to vote on that day because of the problems," he said. "I hope this one will be OK."
At another Lagos registration centre in the Mushin district, where vendors hawk piles of raw meat stacked in open air on the roadside as residents swarm around lines of mini-buses, the process appeared to be running smoothly.
Only one voter was there on Saturday morning, however, and workers said they believed most people in the neighbourhood had already registered. It took him less than 10 minutes to scan his fingerprints and have his card printed.
"From every evidence we have, there is a tremendous improvement over the last exercise," said Kayode Idowu, spokesman for the electoral commission.
Many observers also say registration has been better this time around, but improvement over 2007's effort was not a high hurdle to clear.
An entirely new roll is needed to replace the one used in the 2007 ballot, which was riddled with false names and underage voters -- among the reasons observers labeled the vote deeply flawed.
The process began poorly in mid-January, with malfunctioning equipment and registration stations failing to open. Machines were also stolen, and violence occurred in some areas.
But many of the technological problems were solved, and last week the electoral commission announced that nearly 55 million people had been registered as of January 31.
President Goodluck Jonathan is favoured to win the election in after defeating a challenge from Atiku Abubakar, the consensus candidate for the country's mainly Muslim north to take the ruling party nomination.
However, the race could become more competitive than in previous years if opposition parties manage to form an alliance against him. But so far a purported alliance between CPC and ACN has failed to materialize.
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