The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) completed the registration of voters on February 7th,an exercise that was marred by poor planning, which raised doubts about the readiness for the April 9th national and state elections. The voter registration drive was initially scheduled for the two-week period ending January 29th, but was extended by the parliament by a week, to February 5th, because of technical problems experienced at centres across the country. On February 5th the INEC announced a further two-day extension to enable it to record voters in areas where registration had not taken place "due to communal conflicts, overpopulation, technical or logistical problems". Much of the difficulties encountered by the INEC stemmed from shortages of imported electronic voter registration equipment-including laptop computers, fingerprint scanners, cameras and printers-faulty machines, and the lack of experience of INEC operators in using the new technology introduced in an attempt to avoid the fraud that marred past elections.

The delayed and problematic compilation of the electoral roll did little to boost public confidence in the INEC's ability to organise smooth, free and fair ballots for April. There remains some concern that Nigeria may end up with a voter list that is not much of an improvement on the flawed register used for the 2007 elections, which were spoilt by widespread vote rigging that led observers to deem them not to have been credible. Nigerians have been hopeful that the administration of the current president, Goodluck Jonathan, will deliver on its pledge to organise credible polls in April, thereby breaking the cycle of chaotic elections that have so far blighted democracy in Africa's most populous nation. The US-based International Republican Institute released a Nigerian public opinion survey on February 1st that showed that 74% of people interviewed believed that April's ballot will be more credible than the 2007 polls. The poll of 3,030 people, conducted between November 29th and December 7th 2010, also showed that 63% have a lot or some confidence in the INEC. The Commission may well not have enjoyed this level of confidence had the survey been carried out following the voter registration fiasco.