The Independent National Electoral Commission of Nigeria (INEC) announced on Wednesday 8 March the postponement of the state governors’ election. Originally scheduled to take place on Saturday 11 March, the vote will finally take place on 18 March.
The reason for the postponement is that a Nigerian court on Wednesday asked the electoral authorities to reconfigure the machines used in the presidential election, even though we are four days away from the polling day. The decision came too late, according to the commission, which, according to a statement, does not have enough time to reconfigure the 176,000 electoral accreditation machines that will be used in 774 local government areas across the country.
“The commission has taken the difficult but necessary decision to reschedule the gubernatorial and state house of assembly elections to Saturday, March 18, 2023,” the election commission said in a statement.
Furthermore, in accepting the court’s decision, the Commission made a request to the court to be given sufficient time to back up the data stored on the BVAS machines used during the 25 February presidential election. The application was accepted by the court on Wednesday.
In addition, earlier today (Wednesday 08 March), the court rejected the request of Peter Obi and his team to inspect the BVAS machines prior to their reconfiguration. In response to this request by the Labour Party candidate, the Commission stated that it was “not opposed to the parties to the dispute inspecting the election material”. “It will continue to give all litigants access to the materials (…) to pursue their cases in court,” she added.
In the streets of Lagos, since the electoral commission made public the results of the 25 February presidential elections on 1 March, the opposition parties have not stopped contesting. In the streets of Lagos, since the electoral commission made public the results of the 25 February presidential elections on 1 March, the opposition parties have not stopped contesting.
