Registered IDPs to vote in Nigeria general election: electoral chief

Registered internally displaced persons of voting age will be allowed to participate in next month's general election in Nigeria, the country's electoral chief said Tuesday, 25 days to the election.

Those who are still within the restive states in the northeastern region of Nigeria -- namely Adamawa, Borno and Yobe -- will be allowed to vote in the elections, Attahiru Jega, chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission said in Abuja, at a stakeholders workshop on Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and the 2015 general election.

Currently, there are between 981,000 to one million internally displaced persons in that region of the West African country, he noted, saying, to make collation of election results easy for the electoral body, the exercise will be conducted in special areas set up for the IDPs to vote.

"This is the least that could be done to allow for their participation in the election," the Nigerian electoral chief said.

The special centers would be used for the distribution of permanent voters card to the IDPs, prior to the election, he said, adding no center would be created in the IDPs' camps.

However, the electoral body ruled out the possibility of people in areas under the control of Boko Haram to participate in the general elections, except the local security agencies say otherwise.

Noting some areas in the three worst-hit states by Boko Haram were still under control of the terrorists, the electoral body said it would work in accordance with internationally-approved risk management guidelines.

"The commission can only do elections in areas that are safe," the electoral chief said, noting, however, the turn-out might be low but would not affect the returns or the declaration of a winner.

The electoral commission has fixed Feb. 14 and Feb. 28 for the presidential and federal lawmakers' election, as well as the governorship and state legislators' election respectively. Endi