Nigeria races to get voter cards out for presidential election

Abuja - Five weeks before a presidential
election, Nigeria's electoral commission said on
Friday it has not yet finished printing the cards
that voters will need to present at polling
stations.
Of the cards that are ready, about 15 million
have not yet been collected by voters,
sometimes because of apathy or geographical
remoteness, said electoral commission
spokesman Kayode Idowu, while insisting
everything would be ready on time.
Commission data showed no voter cards at all
had been delivered to Borno state, the region
worst hit by Boko Haram militants who are
waging an Islamist insurgency against the
government. More than 10,000 people died
last year in the violence.
The Feb. 14 election in Africa's biggest
economy and leading energy producer is
expected to be a close contest between
President Goodluck Jonathan and his leading
challenger, Muhammadu Buhari. Its conduct
will be closely watched, since past polls have
been marred by widespread ballot-stuffing,
violence and in some cases outright fabrication
of results.

Across the country, 38.8 million voters have
retrieved their cards, out of the 54.3 million
that the commission, known as INEC, had
produced by the end of last year, Idowu said.
"We're making this data public to remind
people to pick up their cards. We can't take it
to their homes," he said. INEC was setting up
more pickup locations outside the main towns
to make it easier for rural voters.
He declined to comment on how many cards
were left to print and distribute.
Jonathan's administration has created
permanent voter cards in an effort to stamp
out fraudulent practices like voting multiple
times. Now, in theory, no one can vote
without presenting a biometric card and
matching thumb print.
But there are controversies over technical
glitches and data collection failures. Around 11
million people were struck off the voting list
last year, many of them wrongly, and the
opposition cried foul. Idowu declined to say
how many had been re-registered.
Nigeria's population is around 170 million, the
biggest in Africa, but the number eligible to
vote will not be known until next week, after
INEC finishes processing registrations.
More than a million people displaced by Boko
Haram and scattered across many states will
be unable to vote unless the government finds
a way around the electoral law, which says
they have to vote in their home constituencies.
Idowu said parliament had now rejected
changing that law.
In Borno, distribution of voter cards only
began on Friday, INEC sources said.