Focus on the problems of voter registration

At a time of growing apprehension about the successful conduct of general elections due in Nigeria early next year, a voter registration exercise from 12 to 22 September was expected to be a reassuring first step, indicating that all would go well. What will be Nigeria's first general elections since President Olusegun Obasanjo came to power through the polls in 1999 takes on increased significance because no civilian government has conducted elections resulting in a successful transfer of power to a new civilian government in Nigeria's 42 years of nationhood. Rather than dousing fears, however, the conduct of the voter registration exercise appears to have added to a growing sense of dread among Nigerians as the polls draw nearer. Despite a massive turn-out of people across the vast country, the first major hitch reported was the widespread scarcity of registration materials. From all over Nigeria came reports that intending voters spent hours at registration centres without getting their names on the register. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which was in charge of the exercise, was the first to suggest that something untoward was going on. According to the electoral body, its estimate of eligible voters (aged 18 years and above), based on figures provided by the national population agency, was 59 million out of a total population of over 120 million. "We rounded up at 60 million and even printed 70 million cards, 10 million more," said Abel Guobadia, INEC chairman. Six days into the 12-day exercise, 66 million registration forms had been sent into the field, INEC said, suggesting that the continuing scarcity of materials was due to "widespread hoarding of forms by lower-level officials, possibly in collusion with other unscrupulous persons for purposes other than those for which they are meant". Another reason proffered by INEC for the situation was that there was a mass of cases of "double, multiple and under-age registration" in many parts of the country. The electoral body also admitted it had been inefficient in monitoring the availability and use of materials. On 21 September, which was originally supposed to be the last day of the exercise, chaotic scenes developed in many registration centres across Nigeria, where intending voters, desperate to put their names on the register, outnumbered the number of registration forms available. In the capital Abuja, a security operative who had jumped the queue shot and wounded four people as an angry mob gathered around him. Throughout Nigeria there were reports of electoral officials fleeing from registration centres when crowds became menacing. Late on that day, INEC broadcast a statement on radio and television that the exercise had been extended by one day. But according to news reports from different parts of the country, electoral officials the next day did not turn up at many registration centres, either out of fear or for lack of materials. The exercise ended with huge numbers of prospective Nigerian voters still unregistered. Some of INEC's worst suspicions of malpractices have been borne out by some subsequent events: In southwestern Oyo State, the police said on Tuesday (24 September) it was investigating a member of the House of Representatives belonging to the opposition Alliance for Democracy (AD) party after he was found with hundreds of voter cards. The Associated Press also published a photograph of an evidently underage boy being registered in the southwestern town of Abeokuta, an AD stronghold. The AD and the All Nigeria People's Party (the leading opposition party) have, in turn, accused the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) of engaging in malpractices aimed at securing unfair advantage in forthcoming elections. They said there were many instances where registration centres were moved without notice, or closed before time in PDP strongholds, in order to disenfranchise opposition supporters. "What is clear from the registration (of voters) exercise is that Nigerian politicians are not ready to play by the rules," Ike Onyekwere, a political analyst told IRIN. "It is worrying with the coming elections in view, considering that rigging and other electoral malpractices were the bane of previous democratic experiments in this country," he added. Onyekwere recalled that massive electoral fraud in votes held in 1964 and 1983, and the political turmoil those situations induced by providing the pretext for military elements to remove two different civilian governments from power. "With the growing political violence in Nigeria and the desperation among politicians to win by all means, they could push the country over the precipice," he added. The voter registration exercise also showed that some of the ethnic and religious crises that have rocked the country in recent years are still smouldering, and may still come in the way of a smooth electoral process. In parts of central Nigeria, which has been afflicted by bitter ethnic clashes in the last year, voter registration was considered unsafe and did not take place. These areas included parts of Benue and Taraba states, where violent clashes between the Tiv and Jukun communities in 2001 resulted in the deaths of hundreds of people. Also affected were parts of Plateau and Bauchi states, where Christian and Muslim communities have engaged in bloody feuds - inflamed by the introduction of strict Islamic or Shari'ah law in predominantly Muslim areas of northern Nigeria. In the volatile Niger Delta oil region of the south, ethnic Ijaw militants are still holding onto oil facilities they seized during the voter registration exercise. They said the seizure and closure of oil pumping stations belonging to oil giants Royal/Dutch Shell and ChevronTexaco was to protest what they considered to be cheating in the delineation of electoral wards for the recent registration exercise. Despite all these problems, INEC is still confident of getting the voter registration and the subsequent elections right. For instance, it has announced that, from 26 September, Nigerians have one month to review the voters' list to spot errors and cases of fraud for necessary amendments. According to the commission, its unprecedented computerisation of the voting register will allow it to spot and invalidate all cases of multiple registration by voters. In addition, eligible voters who have not been registered will have another opportunity to do so in another round of registration early next year, according to INEC. However, it did not make any comment on the fact that such voters will not be able to vote in local elections due to take place by December.