DESPITE  its pledge to be  an unbiased  umpire in the general  elections slated for 2011, the Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec),  may face  hard knocks in ensuring a fair and free election.
This  has exemplified  by  the  strident  criticisms that have  trailed  the 2011 election timetable released last week  by Inec. The timetable and schedule of activities for the 2011 elections starting with the National Assembly election on January 15, 2011. Presidential election follows on January 22. The political parties, according to the timetable, are free to start campaign as from October 17.  The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) described the timetable, which shows that the staggered elections as unrealistic and a recipe for failure. Alhaji Lai Mohammed,  the national publicity secretary  the party warned in a statement  that in order for the country not to repeat its history of electoral woes and to prevent the billions of naira to be spent on the elections from going down the drain, the National Assembly must show uncommon patriotism by suspending the operation of the amended constitution until after the 2011 elections, so that Inec can conduct the elections in April.
“The problem of impossible time-lines, which the elections face now, was not created by Inec, but by the choreographed delayed amendment of the constitution by the National Assembly. By releasing the timetable, therefore, Inec has simply demonstrated its readiness to comply with both the provisions of the new Electoral Act and the amended constitution,” said the ACN, adding, however, that in reality, Inec knows that elections cannot hold in January 2011 for many reasons.
 “From our investigations, Inec is yet to award the contract for the procurement of the 120,000 DDC (Direct Data Capture) machines needed for the fresh voter registration. It will take a minimum of 10 weeks from the date of award for the machines to arrive in Nigeria, and Inec will require a minimum of three weeks to complete registration and display the new register for claims and objections.”
ANC said it will take another eight weeks or, at least, 45 days to integrate the data from the over 120,000 polling units before Inec can commence printing of new voters cards. It is, therefore, clear that Inec cannot have the new voter register ready before 21 weeks from last Tuesady, even if the contract for the procurement of the 120,000 DDC machines were to be awarded today, which will bring us to the first or second week in February 2011.
Chief Rueben Fasoranti, chairman of Pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, said  the two weeks earmarked for the voter register was too short to do a thorough job. He, however, urged the Jega-led commission to review the time frame and elongate it to allow every eligible voter to register.
“Two weeks will be too short. He (Jega) should look at it critically, may be elongate it to allow every eligible voter to register otherwise it will exclude some people. And that is the beginning of rigging,” he said. Prof. Itse Sagay, constitutional lawyer, also agreed that two weeks would be grossly inadequate to do a thorough job. Sagay said: “I agree that the period is short. There will be a lot of rush that will lead to errors and omission. They will make mistakes in the process and a lot of people will be excluded. at least one month should be allocated for the compilation of the voter register.”
Mr. Babajide Omoworare, former majority leader of the Lagos State House of Assembly and senatorial candidate of ACN for Osun East Senatorial District in the 2007 election,  said having the presidential elections before the governorship may give the party that wins the former an undue advantage over the other parties during the latter elections.
Solomon Soyebi, Inec national commissioner in charge of publicity, said all the arrangements were in tandem with the provisions of the 1999 Constitution and the 2010 amended Electoral Act. According to the 18-item programme of electoral events the voters’ registration exercise begins November 1 and ends on the 14 contrary to the earlier speculated date. 
The first electoral activity begins on September 11 with the conduct of party primaries running through October 30, 2010. This would be followed by the issuance of notice of election on October 13, 2010 after which parties could commence campaign in public places as from October 17, 2010.
Registration of voters begins on November 1 and ends November 14. Display of voters’ register for claims and objections would be between November 20 and 25, 2010.The last day for the withdrawal by candidates and substitution of withdrawn candidates by political parties would run from November 30, for National Assembly candidate, December 7, for Presidential candidate and December 14 for governorship and state Assembly candidates.
Inec  would publish the final official voters’ register for elections on December 16. Collection of nomination forms is between November 22 and 25, 2010 while the publication of nominated candidates would run from December 16 for National Assembly election, December 23 for presidential election and December 30 for governorship and state Assembly elections.