The residents of Plateau, who turned out in large numbers for the fresh voters’ registration, continued to groan over the slow pace of the process.
The fresh registration, which started on Wednesday, is to capture those who could not get the Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) because they were not captured in the first exercise conducted in 2011.
Large queues of voters are gradually thinning out as more impatient voters leave out of frustration.
In most centres visited in Jos on Thursday, very few voters had been registered in the exercise that had entered the second day.
One of the registrants, Anna Davou, complained that the process had been too slow.
“I was here yesterday and even came back very early today but there are no signs that the machine is working,’’ she said.
Another prospective registrant, Godwim Omale, told NAN that he had been on the queue since Thursday morning but that only one person had been captured as at 11.30 a.m.
Miss Pamela Gugu, the INEC Registration Officer in Giring federal ward, who spoke on the complaints trailing the exercise, said that most of the materials for the registration were not available.
“The machines are also very slow; some are malfunctioning and that makes it very difficult to capture the biometrics,’’ she said.
Mr Shalom Zachariah, a student who came for the registration at mountain Grill polling unit, complained that he had been on one spot of the long queue for “more than four hours’’.
“As you can see, the INEC officials are yet to arrive,’’ he lamented.
Zachariah alleged that the machines used in the 2011 elections were the same ones brought to the polling unit even when they were not good.
Mr Gally Bot, Councillor representing Hwolshe ward in Jos South Local Government, also lamented the slow pace and frustration by the process.
“INEC asked us to mobilise people to register, now the people are here but the process is just too slow to be taken seriously,’’ he said.
He advised INEC to create more registration centres and provide more machines to speed up the process.
“The population here is very high and INEC must take steps to capture everyone,’’ he said.
Bot recalled that less than 50 people were captured and given PVCs out of over 1,000 people that registered at the centre in 2011.
He cautioned INEC against a deliberate attempt to frustrate the voters.
Mr Johnson Nengak, a student of Plateau Polytechnic, decried the stress voters were going through in their efforts to get registered.
“It is unfortunate that voters are eager to register but the machines are not reliable; INEC must provide more personnel and quality materials to carry out the exercise if they are indeed sincere,’’ he said.
NAN
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