Nigeria gears up for 2007 polls
2006-10-08 17:09
Lagos - Voter registration has started across Nigeria ahead of the April 2007 presidential and general elections, said electoral officials on Sunday.
The exercise, which began on Saturday and is being organised by the independent national electoral commission (Inec), aims to register all Nigerians aged 18 and over by December 14.
Special attention will be given to Nigerian returnees from the Bakassi peninsula, an oil-rich territory in the Gulf of Guinea, which Abuja formally ceded to Cameroon on August 14 in line with a World Court ruling, said Inec.
Obasanjo not allowed to stand
The returnees are being settled in Ikang near Calabar, capital of Nigeria's southeast Cross River state.
The registration is a mandatory constitutional exercise ahead of the 2007 poll in which President Olusegun Obasanjo will not be a candidate, having already served the maximum of two four-year terms.
The last voter registration was held four years ago.
- AFP