| Senate will next week consider a spending plan of up to $500 million from the country’s electoral commission to fund a badly needed update of voter lists ahead of January elections, a senior lawmaker said. Parliament last month passed a constitutional amendment bringing presidential and parliamentary elections in Africa’s most populous nation forward to January, leaving little time for reforms needed to avoid a repeat of the chaotic 2007 polls. An electoral roll riddled with fictitious names and omitting legitimate voters was one of the main problems at the 2007 polls, which were so marred by ballot stuffing and intimidation that observers deemed them not to have been credible. “The Senate will reconvene on Tuesday to consider the budget for voter registration by INEC (electoral commission),” Senate spokesman Ayogu Eze told Reuters. The upper house will interrupt a summer recess to debate the plan. INEC said its spending plan was largely for the purchase of 120,000 electronic voter registration machines, which would either be sourced from vendors at a cost of 74 billion naira ($500 million) or direct from the manufacturers for 55 billion. INEC spokesman Kayode Idowu said the short timeframe meant the commission was not certain of being able to source all of the machines from the manufacturers in time. Attahiru Jega, head of the commission, has said INEC aims to compile a new voter register between August and November, but opposition politicians and analysts doubt such a huge task in a country of 140 million people can be completed that quickly. The machines include laptop computers, finger print scanners, cameras and printers to issue voter cards. |
Aug62010