Dear All:
I keep asking: why has INEC not given the DVD of the voters' registers to the political parties and to candidates that request them as they promised AND as required/allowed by law? Why are the political parties and candidates not more vociferous in demanding the voters' register? Who is hiding what from whom?
Honestly, if I were a candidate for DOG-CATCHER in my local government, I would SUE INEC for the voters' register because I would like to convince myself that not only am I on the voters' register, but ALL my SUPPORTERS are on the register, and ALL my potential supporters are on there! For why am I contesting at all if I cannot be assured that those who have expressed their support for me and have registered are indeed duly registered?
Inquiring minds want to know.
The more important issue: suppose a voter has his voters' card and goes to the particular polling unit where he or she registered and does not find his name? What should happen?
I SUBMIT that that person should be allowed to VOTE, but the card be WITHELD until Tuesday or Wednesday, when he can come and retrieve it. That would conform roughly to the "tendered ballot" provision Section 60 of the Electoral Law.
QUOTE
http://www.nigerianmuse.com/20100806163803zg/sections/general-articles/nigerias-electoral-bill-2010/
Tendered Ballot Paper
60. (1) If a person claiming to be entitled to vote applies for a ballot paper after some other person has voted in the name given by the claimant he shall, upon satisfactory answers given to any questions put to him by a poll clerk be entitled to receive a ballot paper in the same manner as any other voter; but the ballot paper (in this Act referred to as "the tendered ballot paper") shall be of a colour different from the ordinary ballot papers.
(2) The Presiding Officer shall require the voter to deliver the tendered ballot paper to him instead of allowing it to be put in the ballot box, and the Presiding Officer shall endorse on it the name of the voter and his number in the register of voters.
(3) The ballot paper shall on delivery to the Presiding Officer and in the view of all present be set aside by the Presiding Officer in a packet intended for tendered votes and the tendered ballot paper shall be counted by the Returning Officer.
(4) The Presiding Officer shall, when he tenders a ballot paper under this section, enter the name of the voter and his number in the register of voters on the list to be called tendered vote list and the tendered vote list shall be produced in any legal proceedings arising out of the election.
UNQUOTE
Without invoking this provision under a "Doctrine of Necessity", there might be more anger on Saturday April 9 and subsequent elections.
Bolaji Aluko
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PUNCH
Missing names: INEC may adopt manual voter's register in Oyo
By Olalekan Adetayo, Ibadan
Tuesday, 5 Apr 2011
Following the public outcry of prospective voters, who could not find their names on the voter's register during the botched National Assembly elections in Oyo State last Saturday, the Independent National Electoral Commission may use manual voter's register to complement the existing ones for subsequent elections.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mr. Ayo Adakeja, gave the indication in a telephone interview with journalists on Monday.
Adakeja said he had already met with the electoral officers in the 33 local governments areas of the state to see how they could use the manual register to correct the anomaly.
He said the manual register might be used to compare with the electronic register to resolve the problem.
But for the postponement of the election, crisis might have erupted in some areas where voters did not find their names in the register.
For instance, in Ward II, Unit I of Ibadan North East Local Government Area located in Ile Adepo area, a "strange voter register" was said to have been brought to the polling booth.
A prospective voter, Alhaji Mukhtar Gbadegesin, who spoke with our correspondent on behalf of other residents, claimed that the voter register brought to the unit contained 52 names out of over 400 prospective voters who registered in the unit.
He added that out of the 52 names in the register, only two voters were identified as residents of the area.
His claim was corroborated by the unit's Presiding Officer, Mrs. Agoi Omotayo.
At Asi, Ibadan North Local Government area of the state, a voter, Mr. Muritala Adetunji , also claimed he could not find his name in the register.
The development also prompted the state chapter of the Action Congress of Nigeria to order its members to participate in forthcoming elections only if there was complete voter register, including manual register, ballot papers and form EC8A which is the result sheet.
In the build up to the election, some suspects, including the Head, Information and Communication Technology Unit of INEC in Oyo State were arrested in a hotel in Ibadan with six Direct Data Capture machines, fuelling speculations that they had tampered with voter register of some local governments.
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