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Collection of voter cards drags slowly ahead of Nigeria elections

Xinhua, March 12, 2015 Adjust font size:

Despite postponing the deadline twice, Nigerian election authority still finds it hard to collect all voter cards before the general elections that had been rescheduled to this month.

So far, only 55.5 million permanent voter cards have been collected, only 80.61 percent of the 68.8 million cards rolled out last year, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Nigeria's electoral body, said this week.

The country had on Sunday extended the collection by two weeks to March 22 for larger participation, while the national polls are set for March 28, and the governorship elections postponed to April 11.

Statistics show some northern states had recorded 95 percent collection rate before the second postponement, while others, particularly in the southern part had barely recorded 70 percent.

Some citizens in capital Abuja blamed the electoral body for being lackadaisical to distribute the cards. Others alleged they are disenfranchised.

Like many other Nigerians who are yet to get their voter cards, Owoso Lateef, a secret police officer in Abujia, said he had not found his name in the voter register, a situation one of the INEC staff admitted was a "serious issue". While his wife, Abdel-Lateef Moriamo, with whom he registered at the same venue and on the same day, found her name and got her card easily.

Some Resident Electoral Commissioners in different states had earlier admitted that some of the voter cards had not been be printed.

The electoral body's spokesman, Idowu, said every voter whose name is on the register can be sure of getting his or her voter cards before the election. Endi