VOTER REGISTRATION IN OGUN STATE STILL WAITING TO

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 LAGOS 001355 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR AF/W STATE FOR INR/AA E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/11/2016 TAGS: PREL PGOV NI SUBJECT: VOTER REGISTRATION IN OGUN STATE STILL WAITING TO TAKE OFF REF: LAGOS 1313 Classified By: Consul General Brian L. Browne for reasons 1.4 b and d ¶1. (C) Summary: The Ogun State Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) registration has been hampered by a lack of registration machines, by maintenance issues, and by inexperience. NGOs report registration stations are inaccessible to most rural residents. Journalists recount allegations by opposition parties of rigged registration and violence. State officials, while critical of the process believe they have no power to influence things for the better and have few options except to believe "things will work out". End summary. -------------- -------------- Few Machines, Inexperienced Personnel Hamper INEC -------------- -------------- ¶2. (U) In a late October visit by Pol/Econ/Chief and Poloff to Ogun State (Ogun neighbors Lagos State),INEC Public Affairs Officer Dansu Ronald noted the registration process began as scheduled on October 25. Each INEC machine was registering 90 persons a day, more than the 80 persons per day predicted. This means registration is being conducted at the rate of four to five minutes per voter, he pointed out. However, Ogun State INEC Administrative Secretary E.O. Fakorede noted the lack of machines had severely restricted the process. The State had only 24 machines, although Fakorede expected INEC to deliver 13 more machines the following week. However, Fakorede estimated the State needed 900 machines to register an estimated 2 million voters. ¶3. (U) The machines' Achilles' heel is their lack of battery power, Fakorede told Poloff. Some machines run out of power inexplicably after a few hours. By late afternoon all machines are out of power and need to be recharged, a process lasting two hours. Without power in much of the region, generators are necessary. INEC has provided some generators but the State needs more dedicated to this purpose, Ronald commented. ¶4. (U) To hire registration workers, Fakorede said, INEC invited applications, sought out university students, National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members, and others for the temporary assignment. The INEC support staff is mostly young persons under 25 years of age. Because INEC had not yet received machines, INEC trained its employees for a month using only a manual. INEC registrars' initial encounter with the machines was on the first day of registration. This led predictably to significant delays as the registrars attempted to learn how to use the machines. To speed up the process INEC rotated their registration personnel from polling stations that did not yet have machines through polling stations that did have machines to observe the machines in operation, Fakorede said. -------------- Ogun State Officials Critical but Optimistic -------------- ¶5. (U) Kayode Samuel, Chief of Staff to the Ogun State Governor, remarked the local INEC was off to a slow start and lacked a sufficient number of machines. However, Samuel said "INEC will get its act together". State Assembly Speaker Titi Oseni was not as optimistic. INEC has done a poor job, she said, noting that 14 out of 20 local governments still have no INEC presence. However, Oseni insisted, those who want to register will find a way to do so. ¶6. (C) A far more blunt assessment came from the Ogun State People's Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman Toju Fadairo. He termed the lack of machines "disastrous" and referred to Ogun State INEC Commissioner Jacob Nwakpa as an "idiot". However, Fadairo advised that voters should "not lose hope" in the process. -------------- Registration Inaccessible to Rural Ogun -------------- ¶7. (U) Kehinde Kolawole, Chair of the Community Human Right and Advocacy Centre (COHRAC),a local NGO that works to empower community groups, told Poloff that most people do not believe there will be an election, and the desultory performance of INEC only reinforces this belief. Kolawole commented that INEC registration is still inaccessible in much of Ogun State, occurring far from most rural villages. LAGOS 00001355 002 OF 002 Kolawole remarked that his home village is one and a half hours away from the nearest INEC polling station. When registrants from his village arrived, they had to wait for up to four hours to register. -------------- Opposition Claims PDP Rigging Registration -------------- ¶8. (C) Tomy Agbetuyi of the Daily Independent stated that opposition parties claim INEC is only registering PDP members and is ignoring non-PDP registrants. Agbetuyi recounted an incident in which two All-Nigeria People's Party (ANPP) members attempted to register. While he did not know the specific details of the dispute, Agbetuyi reported that two ANPP members ended up in the Abeokuta hospital. ¶9. (C) Comment: By almost all estimation, without more machines, INEC cannot register all eligible voters in Ogun State before the December 14 deadline. Unless INEC manages to improve significantly and swiftly, that expiry will come and go while many unregistered voters remain. End comment. BROWNE