Somewhere in the middle of the voters registration period I asked the national press officer for the Independent National Electoral Commission, Pastor Segun Adeogun, how many people would have to be registered every day for everyone in the electorate to be covered. He said: “Ah, no! That is mathematics. Things don’t work like that here.”
The chairman of INEC Professor Maurice, Iwu at a press conference two weeks ago, accused the press of spreading “laughable lies” about the registration process. The FCT election commissioner Kabiru Ahmed had just told the group of INEC workers and journalists they had already registered 90 per cent of the number registered in 2003.
To rapturous applause he said: “We will be able to shut up shop by December 14th.” He added they had 80 per cent of the registration machines they were allocated. I asked if that was the case why were machines being rotated around polling stations, cutting the time people had to register?
Ahmed said: “Because we only have a quarter of what we need we have to rotate the machines, one between four.”
Professor Iwu said he was pleased. He repeated the figure of 80 per cent.
I stupidly piped up with: “You mean 25 per cent?” He said: “You see! There are some sections of the media who are bent on twisting this. Did not everyone in this room just hear me say there was 80 per cent of the machines delivered? There are some people in the media who are spreading laughable lies about this registration. Why? Because they are working for the people who benefited from the rigging last time. Last election there was a carry-go. There will be no carry-go this time.”
Voter registration began in October and was meant to finish today. The electoral act makes it illegal to have any registration of voters going on within 120 days of the election. We enter that period tomorrow. But even by the Independent Electoral Commission’s own figures only 10 million people have been registered this time out of an estimated electorate of over 70 million.Three weeks ago Professor Maurice Iwu, announced they would be combining the people registered over the last 10 weeks with the register from the election four years ago.
No one I have met says there was an actual election in 2003. It was blatantly rigged, and the register flawed.
A colleague told me he turned up to vote at his polling station in 2003 and didn’t find his name. It had been moved inexplicably to another polling station miles away. There is no travel allowed on election days. People were registered several times and then sold their ballot cards to politicians. Dead people were also registered. I heard the going rate for a voter's card was as low as N20, there were so many in circulation. Many people have moved cities, or died, since then.
INEC’s answer to the corrupted register was a delivery of Direct Data Capture machines, suitcase voter registration computers that take pictures and a thumbprint of the voter. However, a glance at the 2006 budget reveals that no money was given to INEC for voter registration or polling materials. They had to apply for it in a supplementary budget earlier this year.
The money was held up in the Due Process department of the government, INEC said. The cheque also bounced, Professor Iwu complained. These accusations were denied by the government.
Whatever the actual truth is, INEC only ordered 33,000 Direct Data Capture machines. There are an estimated 120,000 polling stations in the country. In the Federal Capital Territory they were given enough machines (eventually) to have one machine between four polling stations. This meant that even if they got a “full complement” of machines on day one –which they didn’t- they would have to rotate the machines around the polling stations. Suddenly a 40 day registration period became 10 days, as everyone has to register at the polling station where they will vote.
A DDC machine in the Federal Capital Territory will stay at a registration centre for 5 days maximum, and then move on to the next one. It is supposed to visit each polling station twice. I tried to find two in the city area and found both had left early. I spoke to a phone credit recharge seller nearby the station. He said: "Yes I registered. It was easy, but only because no one knew about it. Once the people find out its here, there will be queues and it will be impossible." The operators had packed up early because the battery had run out, he said.
INEC claim they “release” the location of the voter registration machines to the press. This is not quite true. We have to come and pick the release up, and it’s not always ready. The list is prepared on Monday, but the machines stay in an area on a Friday to Friday basis. So the machines have already been in an area for two days before we get hold of the list.
On two occasions we received the list late, and it had to be printed the next day. This week the INEC FCT press man said the list was not available because their printer was out of action. Someone said to me: “In the press I only see the list of where the machines were.”
Officially, the next month is to be called “revalidation” where people can come and find their name on the 2003 voters register and tick it off. I have seen no precise details on how this will be done. Does this mean that if you weren’t registered in 2003 you can’t register now? If you can register, what effect does that have on the electoral act?
The figure of 120 days before the election is probably an arbitrary figure and would not make much difference if it was 60 or even seven days, but the fact is that the law states it is so. If registration carries on past today, can the election be annulled if powerful people who control the courts so desire?