BENIN—THOUSANDS of  voters in Edo State, who thronged the various registration centres, yesterday, in Benin for the registration exercise which has entered its fifth day, are still finding it difficult to do so owing to the slow pace of the exercise in most of the registration centres visited by our Correspondent.

However, most of the prospective voters, who spoke with newsmen at the centres visited agreed that some of the initial problems were being overcomed by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

Another problem encountered by INEC adhoc staff was the restiveness of the crowd due to the slow pace of the registration even as some of the would be voters were observed jumping queue at the centre where there are four registration units.

Some INEC staff, who spoke to journalists on condition of anonymity said that they were having problem with some of the systems, such as the scanners, and suggested that if they were upgraded, the situation would improve.

They also explained that the observed problems had been reported to INEC office and they are responding.

At the George Idah primary school, Ihama, registration centre, an INEC official said that they were having problems with battery, which  often run down, adding that the system they were using for the registration of voters had no back-up batteries.

It was observed that prospective voters at a registration centre,  which has two units pole apart, were making use of one ink pad for finger thumb-print, a situation they said was delaying registration as the ink pad had to be transferred every time.

At press time, Edo State INEC’s spokes person, Mrs. Imoudu Sule, explained that most of the scanners for the registration exercise in the state were up-graded over night, and that INEC officials have been dispatched to distribute back-up batteries to the various registration centres. She also denied reports of diversion of some of the DDC machines.