INEC extends voters' registration by one week

Details: Category: Politics; Published on Saturday, 29 January 2011 14:43; Written by Admin; Hits: 1978

Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has formally announced a one-week extension of the voters’ registration, even as potential voters continue to grapple with sundry challenges, which have slowed down the pace of the exercise.

INEC Secretary, Abdulahi Kaugama, in a statement yesterday explained that with the extension, the claims and objections scheduled to take place from February 3, 2011 – February 8, 2011, has been postponed. The letter read: “Following the amendment to Section 9 (5) of the Electoral Act 2010, as amended, INEC has extended the on-going voters’ registration exercise by seven days.

“The extension will take effect from Saturday January 30, 2011 to Saturday, February 5, 2011. This is to enable all eligible voters, who were unable to get registered within the previously stipulated time of January 15 to January 29 to do so during the extension. “Meanwhile, the display of the preliminary list of voters for claims and objections will now be from February 12 to February 17, 2011.

“INEC hereby urges Nigerians to use the opportunity of this extension to get registered accordingly.” Yesterday, members of a group, the Project 2011 Swift Count, announced its intention to present detailed information on Nigeria’s voter registration process collated by about 1, 000 observers located in every one of the 774 local government areas (LGAs).

According to its spokesman, Mr. Chibuike Mgbeahuruike: “Since the start of the exercise on January 15, Project 2011 Swift Count has been observing and collecting information and within the next few days, members of Project Swift Count National Steering Committee (NSC) will present an updated, comprehensive, nationwide assessment of the registration process, including: the number of registration centres open; the number of centres where the direct data capture (DDC) system is properly functioning; the number of centers issuing temporary voter ID cards; and the number of centres experiencing incidents of violence.

“The monitoring initiative reflects the diversity of Nigeria as it is a joint effort of the Federation of Muslim Women’s Associations in Nigeria (FOMWAN); Justice, Development and Peace/Caritas Nigeria (JDPC), Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), and Transition Monitoring Group (TMG). The project aims to promote free, fair, peaceful, credible and legitimate elections through non-partisan, independent citizen observation.”