Nigeria Will Conduct Two Days of “Mop-Up” Voter Registration

Nigeria will conduct a “mop-up” voter registration drive Feb. 6-7 to accommodate people who haven’t registered for the April general elections, the country’s electoral agency said today.

The exercise will be held in places where registration couldn’t begin early “due to communal conflicts, overpopulation, technical or logistical challenges,” the National Electoral Commission, or Inec, said today in an e-mailed statement.

A voter registration drive was initially scheduled for the two weeks ended Jan. 29 and was extended by a week because of difficulties experienced at centers across the West African country. The two-day extension will be offered in places including Bauchi and Borno states in northern Nigeria, where sectarian violence has occurred recently.

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation and the continent’s biggest oil producer, will hold a presidential election on April 9.

To contact the reporter on this story: Vincent Nwanma in Lagos at vnwanma@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin at asguazzin@bloomberg