The register to be used for the December 2008 polls could be bloated by more than one million voters, a highly placed source at the Electoral Commission (EC) has said. The source said by the EC's own calculations, between 600,000 and one million people were qualified to register during the recent limited registration exercise, but reports available pointed to the fact that about two million people registered during the recent exercise. It said the development meant that the voter population would swell from the current 10.9 million to about 12.9 million, and added that the figure could not be accurate for a population of 22 million. It added that the country's demography could not support such a figure. "We sent out two million forms and there are reports that all were used. If that is true, then the register will be bloated." the source said. It blamed the political parties for the current state of affairs, saying their desperation to capture or remain in power had led them to the bussing of alien and under-age to register. It said after having conducted registration exercises many times, the EC had considerable experience, and its projections in that regard were always right, adding that the figures emerging from the registration exercise could not be the actual figures of people who needed really to register. It said the task of removing names of people who had registered twice was a difficult one as it had to be done manually by comparing faces on the pictures, explaining that only a few names could be removed through that process. The source said if the commission had been operating the biometric system as the National Identification Authority (NLA), people who had registered twice would be easily identified and their names removed. It further said the commission would move gradually towards the use of the biometric system and expressed the hope that by the 2012 elections, the system would be in place. Another source at the EC agreed that the register might be bloated, judging from the huge number of people who had registered, and added that most of those who registered needed not to do so. lt said information available also indicated that people who misplaced their cards were the majority of those who registered, cautioning that they should have initiated moves to have their cards replaced instead of engaging in double registration. The source explained that although the names would be on the register, it would be difficult for such people to vote twice because of the indelible ink. With regard to foreigners, it said it would be difficult for them to vote as they would not be able to prove that they were resident in a particular area. It thus blamed the political parties for enticing people with money to vote twice and said the practice was unacceptable. The source urged the public not to panic, giving the assurance that there were effective mechanisms in place to check double or multiple voting. It, therefore, asked people who had registered more than once to contact the EC to have their names expunged. It said if they did not approach the EC for their names to be expunged, they could face jail terms of not less than one year when caught and successfully prosecuted. Source: Daily Graphic