Nigeria starts voter registration for April elections

Nigeria starts voter registration for April elections

2011-01-16 12:58:51 GMT+7 (ICT)

ABUJA (BNO NEWS) - Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan on Saturday launched the voter registration for the general election in April, Xinhua news agency reported.

Jonathan, who on Thursday won the Peoples Democratic Party presidential primary election, registered as a voter along with family members in southeast Bayelsa State.

The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Attahiru Jega, who witnessed the registration, told journalists that 98,000 Direct Data Capture (DDC) machines, from the 120,000 DDC machines acquired by INEC, have already been deployed to registration centers across the country.

The remaining 22,000 DDC machines will be deployed in less than 24 hours, Jega added.

On the first day of the exercise there were complaints about the slow pace of the scanning process. Hence, Jega appealed to the citizens to exercise patience, affirming that the scanners were going to be adjusted.

"The exercise has not failed and it will not fail. By the time we get to the second day, we will have addressed all the complaints we received," he added.

Jonathan won surprisingly and against all odds in 32 states and the Federal Capital Territory. He received 2,736 votes in total while his closer competitor received only 805 votes.

His opponents, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and Sarah Jibril acknowledged the incumbent president's victory. In return, Jonathan said he expected them to join his campaign team.

Many expected that Atiku would pose a bigger threat to Jonathan but he was defeated in all the states which votes have been counted. Jibril, the only female contestant, only got one vote from a delegate from Kwara State.

The voting was made by PDP delegates in all states on Thursday. Surprisingly, Atiku only won in four states and lost even in Adamawa, Atiku's home state. The voting process was reported as peaceful and without incidents.

However, accusations and allegations of bribery among the delegates were part of the low points of the national convention of the ruling party held to pick a presidential candidate of the faction.

Then allegations accused both Jonathan and Atiku of attempting to offer monetary incentives to PDP delegates in order to secure votes. There was no official confirmation of such allegations.

Nigeria has pledged to have a clean general election after previous elections were rigged.

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