The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has deployed mobile voter registration units to 120 remote riverine communities across Bayelsa, Delta, and Rivers states in what the commission says is the most extensive voter enrolment exercise ever conducted in hard-to-reach Niger Delta settlements.
The operation, involving solar-powered INEC BVAS registration machines transported by boat and helicopter, aims to enroll an estimated 180,000 eligible voters who have never appeared on the voters register because the commission permanent voter registration centres have historically been inaccessible from their communities.
INEC State Coordinator for Bayelsa, Dr. Pauline Ogala, said the exercise was motivated by data showing that voter registration density in riverine LGAs was less than 30% of the adult population compared to the national average of 68%. That gap is not because people do not want to vote, she said. It is because we have not gone to meet them where they are.
Community leaders in several of the targeted areas told Naija Delta Voice that residents were enthusiastic about the registration exercise, with long queues forming at registration points from as early as 5am.
Civil society observers monitoring the exercise said it was proceeding smoothly but noted that a single registration visit to each community was insufficient and called on INEC to plan return visits before the continuous voter registration window closes.
