As more and more Nigerians continue to turn out to register as voters, the decision by INEC to either extend or stick to the two-week allotted for the exercise would be determined by the content and context of reports from its field officers across the country, Sunday Vanguard can reveal.
Some of the reports from the fields were already expected to have arrived at the Zambezi Street, headquarters of the commission by yesterday.
Some reports would come in today.
The reports, a source in the commission told Sunday Vanguard, would form a “One-Week Assessment Benchmark on whether or not the commission has met its target set for the first week.
By yesterday evening, the leadership of the commission was locked in a meeting to carry out a preliminary assessment of the exercise so far, specifically with a view to arriving at a decision to either extend the time or not.
Curiously, too, Sunday Vanguard has been made to understand that some areas in the country only received their Direct Data Capture (DDC), machines 48 hours ago.
“It is after the reports have been properly studied that the commission can then come out to pronounce whether it would require an extension for the exercise or not.”
Sunday Vanguard was told that another meeting of the commission’s leadership would hold tomorrow to assess the situation and decide on the next line of action.
But, from what Sunday Vanguard learnt, an extension, said an insider in the commission: “would commit us to expending more on the exercise; we would also engage more manpower depending on the scope and extent of areas where the exercise started late.
“What the commission does not just want to be rushed into doing is to take a precipitate action regarding this issue of extension.
“Some Nigerians have already used the opportunity of this exercise to find their voice by needlessly asking for an extension without the basic facts needed. Even if we are going to extend the period, it might not just be a blanket extension because of the implications.
“In the event that we make a pronouncement handing down an extension, one of the implications is that we would still keep those schools across the country shut. That would not be desirable.
“What I can tell you is that the extension, if at all it would become necessary, may just be in some areas and not the entire country.
“Part of the measures already put in place by the commission to save cost should there be need for an extension is the use of some of our staff; then there are some National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), members who we trained for the exercise but were eventually not used – we could quickly, also, deploy them; and remember that we still have some 12,000 spare DDC machines that we have not deployed and they would be used to beef-up whatever shortfalls there are,” a senior member of the commission told Sunday Vanguard.
INEC has deployed 100,000 DDC machines for the exercise.
It has also deployed 240,000 persons for the exercise – although the commission trained 350,000 personnel for the exercise.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2011/01/inec-ponders-partial-extension/