Nigeria tests voter accreditation ahead of polls
Lagos, Nigeria (AFP):
Nigeria’s electoral commission has staged mock biometric accreditation for voters ahead of this month’s presidential and parliamentary elections.
Nigerians go to the polls on February 25 in order to elect a successor to President Muhammadu Buhari who steps down after the maximum constitutionally-permissible two terms in office.
State governors and lawmakers will be elected two weeks later.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation and biggest economy, has a long history of electoral malpractice.
Buhari, a 79-year-old former general, however, has promised free and fair elections.
To promote fairness, credibility and transparency of the electoral process, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) introduced a voter accreditation system at the 2015 and 2019 polls.
However, the system was plagued with shortcomings.
On Saturday, INEC held a mock voter accreditation process in selected polling stations nationwide in order to test the system’s operation.
Former Lagos governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress, ex-vice president Atiku Abubakar of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party and ex-governor of southeastern Anambra state Peter Obi of Labour Party are the front-runners.
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