Civil Society Organisation, YIAGA Africa, has expressed worry about the slow pace of the ongoing Continuous Voters Registration (CVR) at centres in Anambra State.

It attributed the ugly development to internet connectivity, urging the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to fix the challenges.

In a statement on Monday in Awka by the Programme Officer, YIAGA Africa’s Power of 18 Project, Miss Chinemerem Onuorah, the body regretted the discouragement the problem was posing to the electorate, especially first time voters, in participating in the exercise and subsequently voting in the November 6 governorship election.

It lamented that INEC servers were either down or too slow to efficiently and smoothly register the number of people who visited the CVR centres daily.

Onuorah said: “Recent CVR report by the electoral umpire indicated that 120,600 persons have completed their online and physical registration process, with Anambra State leading with 8,624 complete registrants.

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“This can be attributed to the diligence of the Anambra people, but also largely due to the efforts of the YIAGA Africa’s project in the state.

“One month into the project, these YIAGA Rockstars have testified to mobilising hundreds of first-time registrants among them through symposiums, lectures, town hall meetings and even football competitions for youths.”

She highlighted other challenges encountered in the mobilisation drive to include lack of tech savvy and access to computers and internet to do their online registration.

“Many willing youths, who visited the CVR centres to register, could not conclude their registration due to internet problem. It takes a toll on our YIAGA Rockstars when they have to convince people to come back the following day to try and complete their registration.

“Another challenge is that many Nigerians are not tech savvy, or have access to computers and internet to do their online registration. When they go to CVR centres to register, they are turned back to go and do the online registration first.

“We recommend that INEC fixes the issue of slow internet, so that people, who show up at the centre, will not be discouraged from doing their registration.

“There should be a separate machine at the registration centres that can attend to people, who did not complete the online registration, so that they can begin and conclude the process physically,” Onuorah said.