Voters register: ACN doubts INEC’s figures

The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has expressed doubt over the authenticity of the final figure of registered voters for next month’s general elections, saying at 73 million, the register appears bloated.

National publicity secretary of ACN, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said yesterday in a statement that the number of multiple registrations announced by INEC, 800,000, is unrealistic and raises doubt concerning the proper use of the AFIS software to clean the register and challenge the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to explain to Nigerians how it arrived at the figure of 73 million voters and 800,000 multiple registrations.

“We have taken our time to study the figures and here are our findings: Empirical analysis of the Nigerian population census given the 2006 figures and using a 3 percent growth rate annually from 2006 to date will put the Nigerian population at about 149,229,090 by July 2009 (Wikipedia). If the population under 18 years who are not eligible to register are taken to account at about 60%, and we discount those who voluntarily decided not to register to vote at about  5 to 10% at a conservative estimate, then there is no way that up to 73 million people could have registered to vote.

“The portent of this bloated voters’ figure, therefore, will be that INEC is yet to come clean on its real figures following the AFIS scanning or may still be touting the pre-AFIS scanning figures as the actual voters’ registration figure. Either way, the bloated figure can only lead to a distorted result for the polls and reward those who engaged in sharp practices during the registration exercise,” Mohammed said.

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