20100730
allafrica

Abuja — Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Professor Atahiru Jega, yesterday warned that the absence of a new and credible voters register may scuttle the 2011 elections.

He said within the next two weeks, the Federal Government will have to choose between providing the funds required to produce a new register and the risk of not having any elections next year.

This came just as the House of Representatives adopted the Conference Report on the Bill for an act to Repeal the Electoral Act 2006 and Re-enact the Independent National Electoral Commission Act 2010. The adoption of the report formally brought to a close the amendment of the Electoral Act 2006 by the National Assembly as the Senate reportedly observed the same ritual yesterday.

Jega who made his views known at a meeting with the House Committee on Electoral Matters acknowledged that the time available to the Commission to conduct a new voter registration exercise was short and urged the government to grant waivers in the procurement process to ensure that the equipment required for the exercise reached the shores of Nigeria in good time.

According to him, the production of a brand new register has become imperative because the existing register was completely unreliable for any credible elections.

"The time is very, very tight and we don't want to leave anybody in doubt about that. This constitutional matter and it is beyond us. From the information we have at our disposal, we are sure that a clean-up of the existing voters' register would never lead to a credible election.

"During our last retreat in Uyo, we took the existing voters register in electronic form and we spent a whole day taking sample from local governments across the States. Between 9am and 9 pm, we were able to cover 19 states and FCT. Having seen samples drawn from only 19 states, it was evident to us that the voters registers as it stands today is deeply, deeply flawed to be a credible basis for free and fair future elections", he said.

According to the electoral umpire, the way out of the current situation will be to defer the effective date of some of the amendments to the Electoral Act and allow the Commission more time to prepare the grounds for a reliable voter registers and credible elections.