The National Electoral Commission (NEC) compiled the voters' register between January 10th and February 6th at 1,780 centres around the country. Voter registration forms part of the preparations for the October elections, which also include the demarcation of electoral districts and a referendum. Preliminary figures released by the commission report that 993,857 voters were registered; of those, around 150,000 of the voter registration forms have been processed so far by the NEC, which reported that around 42% of respondents are female and 58% male. There was a one-day national holiday to facilitate the process, which reportedly led to an appreciable increase in the number registering, although it still fell short of the 1m expected to register out of an estimated 2.1m potential voters.

The NEC's failure to finalise constituencies before the registration has incurred criticism from civil society groups, on the basis that the Constitution requires this process to be completed before voter registration. The inference is that subsequent demarcation may be politically motivated, based on the numbers registered in particular areas. The demarcation delay is because of the difficulties in passing the Threshold Bill, which aimed to adjust the population threshold for each electoral district in line with the changes in population reflected in the 2008 census, and spent two years in the legislature (December 2009, The political scene). There were also widespread allegations of fraud, particularly in relation to double registrations. The registration mechanism, which was based on the testimony of two people already holding registration cards, left the process open to abuse. The result is that many voters are registered in places other than where they reside-something the NEC has stated is not illegal. Despite these concerns, the overall process has been largely considered a relative success.