1. Posted on Monday 24 January 2011 - 09:00

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   Efiokobong

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   Aniefiok Udonquak, AfricaNews reporter in Uyo, Nigeria

   Therese Okpon is a 60-year-old widow who responded to calls for all Nigerians above 18 years to get registered for the April general elections. Since she lost her husband four years ago, she has been hawking smoked fish from house-to-house to feed herself and her grandchildren.

   

   She suspended her trade on Tuesday to visit the nearby town hall in order to get registered. After spending the whole day, she was asked to come the following to get voter’s card.
   
   Narrating her ordeal, she said “my legs are arching, after waiting for several hours, I could not get the voter’s card,’’ she said.
   
   Therese counts herself lucky. Not many Nigerians could be registered on the first day when the exercise began Saturday 15 January, 2010. Several hiccups have cropped up at several centres across the country.
   
   When the exercise began, the Direct Data Capture Machine deployed by the Independent Electoral Commission failed which left thousands of prospective voters disappointed.
   
   Officials of the electoral commission attribute the problem to non usage of the machines since they were assembled as the batteries had run down.
   
   Most communities in Nigeria have no electricity supply and as the centres are located in public schools and in open spaces without access to power supply it means the machines could not charged.
   
   At the Sacred Heart Primary School, Aka Offot in Uyo , in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, scores of voters gathered anxiously to be registered.
   
   ‘I have been waiting all day, I cannot imagine coming here to register only to be told that the battery was not in order,’’ a middle age man who gave his name as Efiong said.
   
   He was joined by several others who lamented that a free and fair election would not be possible without a credible voters’ registration in which eligible voters have been registered.
   
   “I do not want to be told that the register has been completed without many of us registering,’’ he said.
   
   In many parts of the country, complaints have been raised about the registration exercise. It takes more than 30 minutes for a voter to be registered while it has been difficult to capture voters’ fingerprints and lack of materials such as ink and papers.
   
   At other registration centres in Uyo, those who were lucky like Therese were asked to laminate the voter’s card themselves because the electoral body had run short of lamination papers.
   
   ‘They will laminate the card themselves,’ a staff member of the commission hired for the exercise.
   
   A 26-year-old voter had been issued the voter’s card without it being laminated.
   
   Elsewhere, voters were asked to ‘fine a paper and write the following, surname, first name and other names.’
   
   Other information required include date of birth, sex, address, phone number and occupation.
   
   
   Public and private schools have been closed by the government since the exercise began on Saturday. It is feared that if the exercise is extended as being demanded by civil society groups, academic activities will have been severely hampered.
   
   Nigeria is going to the polls in April to elect the president and members of the National Assembly. Election will also be conducted in the 36 states of the Federation as well as the Federal Capital Territory in Abuja.
   
   Goodluck Jonathan is seeking to be elected as president after he clinched the nomination of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He beat his main rival, former vice president, Atiku Abubakar in the primaries.
   
   Jonathan also faces other challengers including the former military head of state, Muhammadu Buhari of the Congress of Progress Change party and one-time head of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Nuhu Ribadu who is running on the ticket of the Action Congress of Nigeria.

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Reactions

1. Posted on Monday 24 January 2011 20:37

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   MrWashington

   

   
   511 berichten
   Lid sinds January 2010

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   the main idea is Therese Okpon is a 60-year-old widow who responded to calls for all Nigerians above 18 years to get registered for the April general elections. Since she lost her husband four years ago, she has been hawking smoked fish from house-to-house to feed herself and her grandchildren.
   This is a good aticale
   
   
   by patrick

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   la chava

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