INEC postpones governorship, state assembly elections to March state

The governorship and state assembly elections have been postponed till March 18, according to information obtained by Peoples Gazette from the Independent National Election Commission (INEC).

Following a meeting of its executives on Wednesday night, INEC announced that the election could no longer proceed as planned, citing a logistics crisis related to BVAS configuration and transportation. The exercise had previously been scheduled to take place on March 11.

“The elections were postponed to allow one more week for preparations,” an official familiar with the meeting told Peoples Gazette by telephone on Wednesday night. “We should be able to get everything in order before March 18.” 

As of the time this story was submitted, the meeting was still going on at the INEC headquarters in Abuja. A senior INEC official informed The Gazette that a statement regarding the postponement was being prepared.

On the basis that it needed to reconfigure the BVAS for the conduct of the elections this Saturday, the commission earlier today persuaded the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal to modify its order granting Peter Obi of the Labour Party and Atiku Abubakar of the PDP permission to inspect the presidential election materials.

Despite having four years and a sizable N355 billion budget to prepare, the electoral commission has an infamous reputation of postponing elections at the last minute due to preparation issues.

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