The Resident Electoral Commissioner for Lagos, Dr. Adekunle Ogunmola, has said that voter registration will take place in Lagos between October and November 2010.

Ogunmola announced this when he paid a courtesy visit to the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission on Friday.

He said, ‘‘The voter registration exercise is expected to last two weeks. Unlike in the past where one machine was deployed to cover a whole area with so many polling units, now it is going to be one machine per polling unit. There will be no question of voter apathy this time. Lagos State currently has 8,465 polling units; so we are not expecting anything less than 8, 465 machines to register the voters.‘‘

Ogunmola said that each polling unit would be manned by three people, adding that those who registered during the last elections should do so again. While stressing the need for a hitch-free general election, the new REC commended LASIEC for its working relationship with INEC, Lagos, in the past.

He said, ‘‘I went through the handing over notes and I am impressed by the relationship between LASIEC and INEC. I hope to continue in the same manner. We cannot do without cooperation.

‘‘The assignment of INEC is greater now than before because people feel the electoral process must be devoid of malpractice. The whole world is now interested in our elections and if Ghana can pull off a free and fair election, Nigeria can too.‘‘

Addressing the new REC, the Chairman of LASIEC, Justice Abdulfatai Tajudeen Afolabi said, ‘‘LASIEC has always had a good working relationship with INEC; we have no reason to be at loggerheads. I am optimistic that we can have credible elections. But to do so, INEC has to be independent.

”If we want to be independent, funds have to be released on time. We all know what happened in the last dispensation when funds were not released on time. In Lagos, possibly because we have got a governor who is a lawyer, we don‘t have that problem with funds. We don‘t owe our workers.‘‘

Afolabi said that voter education had started, especially in areas where people had lost contact with the government.

He said, ‘‘We have already commenced voter education exercises in Takwa Bay, Banana Island, and Amuwo-Odofin. In these areas, people seem to be out of touch with the government. There will be a need for additional polling centres. All our findings will be made available to you.‘‘

Ogunmola explained that LASIEC and INEC‘s previous recommendation of additional polling units had not yielded results.

He said, ”We are hoping that the previous recommendations to approve 4,000 new polling centres will take care of those areas where voters can‘t get easy accessibility to other polling centres. We are still awaiting the outcome.‘‘

Reassurring Nigerians of a credible 2011 elections Ogunmola said the time table for the poll had not been released by INEC.

He said, ‘‘Generally, INEC intends to ensure all political parties have a level playing field. That is the first and major step. Once that is guaranteed, you are likely to have a hitch-free election. Furthermore, complaints will be minimal because as human beings, even when somebody loses normally, he will still want to complain. But such complaints will be minimal because they will lack substance.‘‘



http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art2010090415352342

To totally avoid fraud come 2011 let every Nigerian register for the election with his or her GSM phone number. One phone number one vote.

Don't ask how about people registering with more than one phone because you would register with one phone number PLUS your finger print. Mr. Donald Duke have suggested this already. My company could engineer these things with ease.

For more information on what more you as an individual could do with your GSM phone go to http://www.080advertising.com

That's redundant. I have 3 cellphones by myself. I agree with fingerprint voter registration though and a centralized database

@alphabet43
It's clear you don't understand my post cause this is clear good plan to end voter fraud in Nigeria.

Listen.

It does not matter how many phone numbers you have because you can only register with one phone number PLUS your finger print. Of course all registrations have to be kept in a national database making it impossible for you to register twice. With the proposed system you can only register once and can only vote once with your phone number via SMS. Any telecom expert will understand this cause it's quite simple.

With the state of the economy, it is important that every eligible individual should register, vote and nurture the votes they cast. We should take a bold step this time around to stand by our votes. We should awaken from the slumber of just folding our hands. who does it affect anyways?

Let us all come out to register and vote to kick out corruption in nigeria totally. Your vote is your civic responsibility.