BY LUKA BINNIYAT
ABUJA—The South-South Parliamentary caucus of the House of Representatives yesterday said not more than 50% of eligible voters in the South-South geo-political region had been registered as a result of several challenges the exercise was facing.

The caucus then backed yesterday’s amendment of the 2010 Electoral Act by the House of Reps that gives room for the Independent Electoral Commission, INEC, to extend the on-going registration of voters ahead the April general polls.

Speaking to Vanguard yesterday, the Chairman of the caucus, Andrew Uchendu (PDP/Rivers), said he had been in contact with members of his caucus and that all of them were not satisfied with the rate at which the exercise had been going on in the South-South.

“In my own constituency (Ikwere/Emohua Federal Constituency) the material came one day behind schedule”, he said, “after their arrival, it took them another three days to start operating the Direct Data Capturing, DDC, machines.

“The DDC machines arrived some places two days behind time, because of the peculiarity of our terrain. That means we were four, five clear days behind schedule.”

“That is not the only, problem.  The machines are too slow, the webcam and printers are always having  problems.

“In Emohua Local Government Area, we were to receive 210 DDC machines, but we only got 107 and I find it very unacceptable.
“The same goes for most of my members in their constituencies. There is no way that INEC could have captured 50% of the voters in the South-South  based on their schedule.  The 14 days given for the exercise, is clearly insufficient

“We are therefore happy that the House has amended section 9(5) of the 2010 Electoral Act, to give INEC additional 30 days within which it may decide on how many days it wants to extend the registration of voters.  We would go back to our constituencies to monitor the development,”, he said.

This is the third time in seven months that the Electoral Act had been amended.