Teaching Comparative Government and Politics

Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Nigeria voter registration

al Jazeera reports that voter registration was extended again and that incentives were being offered to registrants.

Nigeria vote registration extended

"Nigeria's electoral agency has extended, by three days, the registration of voters for the upcoming April presidential and general elections due to an 'unusual turnout'...

"The decision follows widespread complaints that thousands of eligible voters had not yet registered.

"Registration was first extended by two months after it got off to a slow start in October because of a dearth of registration machines and problems operating them.

"An estimated 53 million Nigerians have registered to vote in April elections and that figure will rise after full results of the registration process are collated, the head of the INEC said on Tuesday...

"About 35 million people voted in the last presidential election...

"In the past few days the Nigerian authorities have offered a series of incentives, such as days off work for public servants, to encourage potential voters to sign up.
  
"Some state authorities have threatened to deprive citizens who do not sign up of access to basic social services such as healthcare and schooling..."

The April vote is being billed as the first transition in Nigeria's history, long punctuated by military coups, from one democratically elected civilian administration to another.

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