Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)

A raft of elections will be held over the next few months in Nigeria. The elections to the National Assembly will take place on 2 April, the residential elections are due to take place on 9 April 2011 and the gubernatorial and state legislature elections are due to take place on 16 April 2011. On 13 January 2011, the People's Democratic Party, Nigeria's largest political party and the party of the incumbent federal government, held its presidential primary. The incumbent President, Goodluck Jonathan, was selected with a handsome 80% of the vote. Nigeria's Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, is responsible for organising the elections and its chairman, Professor Jega, has publicly and repeatedly committed to ensuring the elections are conducted in a free and fair manner. Over the past few months, INEC has been working to put in place logistical arrangements for the elections in April. There were delays in holding elections because of INEC's concerns.

The first major step to organising the elections is the compilation of a new register of voters. Voter registration commenced on Saturday, 15 January 2011 and will continue for two weeks. To reduce fraud it has been decided that the new register will contain biometric information, including fingerprints and photographs, for each registered voter. Accordingly, the compilation of this new register is a complex logistical challenge for INEC, comprising 132,000 brand new direct data capture machines operated by around 360,000 staff throughout the country. The voter registration process is being closely monitored by the media, Nigerian NGOs and the international community, including the Irish embassy in Abuja. While there have been initial reports of problems with voter registration, it is too early to pass judgment on the process. The EU intends to send an EU election observation mission to cover the elections, subject to an invitation from the Nigerian Government. It is expected that the first members of a mission will arrive by the end of February.

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