Nigeria Content Online

Five days after the
2011 voters’ registration exercise began nationwide, some registration
centres in Ganjuwa Local Government Area of Bauchi State are yet to
commence the exercise. This is due to the non-supply of the Direct Data
Capture (DDC) machines, which has crippled the exercise in these
centres.

The Administrative
Officer of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Bauchi
State, Aminu Bello told NEXT in Bauchi during an interview on the
on-going voter registration exercise in the state that delay in the
supply of the machines is affecting the work of the commission.

“This problem of
lack of supply of the DDC Machines is not only in Bauchi,” he said. “It
is all over the country. 89 registration centres in Ganjuwa Local
Government Area have not yet gotten the machines because they are in
short supply for now.” He however assured that even though the exercise
has commenced, no eligible voter will be left behind.

“All of them will be registered as soon as the machines are supplied to us because it is their right,” he said.

He pointed out that
the exercise has been going on smoothly in the state, except for some
hitches encountered at the start of the exercise.

“I know that there
is no way the registration exercise will commence on the 15th in all
centres all over the country as planned. In Bauchi, we encountered some
problems before the exercise began and the major challenge we faced was
that of logistics. We had the DDC Machines on ground but moving them
and the registration officers to the field was our great challenge,” he
said.

Projections from the INEC national headquarters indicated that over
2.4 million eligible voters are expected to be registered in Bauchi
State during the ongoing exercise, as against the over 2.1 million
registered in the state during the same exercise in 2007.