Nigeria made a final push to register voters in Africa’s most populous nation on Saturday ahead of April elections after a process that was sometimes chaotic and violent — but better than past years.
The aim was to provide what many say the country has never had: a credible voters register to form a basis for presidential, legislative and state elections being called among the most important in Nigeria’s history.
Saturday was the deadline to register for most of the country, but a two-day extension was announced at the end of the day for a selected list of locations that saw major delays.
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.
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.
The process was due to end January 29 but was extended through Saturday. The commission projects at least 62 million will register in total.
On Saturday, the commission announced registration would be further extended for two more days in selected districts where technical problems, logistical challenges or “communal conflicts” caused delays.
Jibrin Ibrahim, head of the Nigeria-based Centre for Democracy and Development, said the new register will be “just the first step toward free and fair elections.”
“It doesn’t guarantee anything,” he said.
“What it does is it gives you an authentic base to evaluate the elections … Because the previous registers were so poorly done, we never really knew the actual number of voters in this country.”
President Goodluck Jonathan is favoured to win the election in Africa’s largest oil producer after defeating a challenge from 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.
Feb62011