INEC postpones governorship and state assembly elections

Nigeria’s electoral commission has announced a surprise postponement of state governorship and state assembly elections.

– A key point to note

The elections, billed for March 11, will now take place on March 18. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said it needs more time to reset the electronic machines it used during the Feb. 25 to verify voters’ data.

– Learn more

The decision came just hours after the court of appeal in Abuja approved the commission’s request to reconfigure the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) devices for the governorship polls before opposition parties contesting the results of the presidential polls could have access to them.

Labour Party and the Peoples Democratic Party say Inec’s failure to upload results of the presidential poll through the BVAS to its website allowed results to be doctored and want to examine the machines to obtain evidence.

The court of appeal ruled that while the parties can access the more than 176,000 machines, Inec can reset them for the next vote. It said the electoral body must first upload data from the devices to a backend server and make certified true copies to the opposition parties.

The court decision leaves Inec with two days before the initial date for the governorship election.

– Important quotes

“While the ruling of the Tribunal makes it possible for the Commission to commence the preparation of the BVAS for the Governorship and State Assembly elections, it has come far too late for the reconfiguration to be concluded,” Inec’s’ spokesperson Festus Okoye said a statement Wednesday.

“Consequently, the Commission has taken the difficult but necessary decision to reschedule the Governorship and State Assembly elections which will now take place on Saturday 18th March 2023. By this decision, campaigns will continue until midnight of Thursday 16th March 2023 i.e. 24 hours before the new date for the election.

“However, we wish to reiterate that the Commission is not against litigants inspecting election materials. Consequently, it will continue to grant all litigants access to the materials they require to pursue their cases in court.

“We wish to reassure all political parties and candidates that the data from the Presidential and National Assembly elections will be backed up and available in INEC cloud facilities, including the INEC Results Viewing Portal (IReV). Political parties can apply for Certified True Copies of the backend data of the BVAS. Also, the results on the BVAS will continue to be available on the IReV for interested parties to access.”