Nigeria races to get voter cards out for presidential election

Abuja - Five weeks before a presidential election,
Nigeria's electoral commission said on Friday it has not
yet finished printing the cards that voters will need to
present at polling stations.
Of the cards that are ready, about 15 million have not yet
been collected by voters, sometimes because of apathy
or geographical remoteness, said electoral commission
spokesman Kayode Idowu, while insisting everything
would be ready on time.
Commission data showed no voter cards at all had been
delivered to Borno state, the region worst hit by Boko
Haram militants who are waging an Islamist insurgency
against the government. More than 10,000 people died
last year in the violence.
The Feb. 14 election in Africa's biggest economy and
leading energy producer is expected to be a close
contest between President Goodluck Jonathan and his
leading challenger, Muhammadu Buhari. Its conduct will
be closely watched, since past polls have been marred
by widespread ballot-stuffing, violence and in some
cases outright fabrication of results.
Across the country, 38.8 million voters have retrieved
their cards, out of the 54.3 million that the commission,
known as INEC, had produced by the end of last year,
Idowu said.
"We're making this data public to remind people to pick
up their cards. We can't take it to their homes," he said.
INEC was setting up more pickup locations outside the
main towns to make it easier for rural voters.
He declined to comment on how many cards were left to
print and distribute.
Jonathan's administration has created permanent voter
cards in an effort to stamp out fraudulent practices like
voting multiple times. Now, in theory, no one can vote
without presenting a biometric card and matching thumb
print.
But there are controversies over technical glitches and
data collection failures. Around 11 million people were
struck off the voting list last year, many of them
wrongly, and the opposition cried foul. Idowu declined
to say how many had been re-registered.
Nigeria's population is around 170 million, the biggest
in Africa, but the number eligible to vote will not be
known until next week, after INEC finishes processing
registrations.
More than a million people displaced by Boko Haram and
scattered across many states will be unable to vote
unless the government finds a way around the electoral
law, which says they have to vote in their home
constituencies.
Idowu said parliament had now rejected changing that
law.
In Borno, distribution of voter cards only began on
Friday, INEC sources said.

Courtesy: news24
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