Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has again extended the voter registration, which was due to end Saturday, the commission has announced. However, the two-day extension will only be in areas of the country where the exercise did not begin on schedule or where there were identified problems of logistics.
“The INEC will undertake a mop-up exercise in areas where the ongoing voter registration exercise could not commence early due to communal conflicts, over-population, technical or logistical challenges. The mop up voter registration will be from Sunday, February 6 to Monday, February 7, 2011,’ INEC spokesman Emmanuel Umenger said.
The exercise, which started 15 January, was due to last two weeks, but INEC extended it by one week to accommodate the millions of Nigerians who were yet to register.
Observers said there has been a huge interest among eligible Nigerians to register so they can vote in April’s general elections.
The exercise however suffered initial hitches due to problems with the Direct Data Capture (DDC) machines which were imported for the process.
Some states in the federation have made the possession of voter’s card a requirement for workers to collect their salaries, further pushing many to want to register.
INEC has revised downward the number of people it plans to register, from 70 million to 62 million.