It’s Official: INEC postpones Saturday’s governorship, state assembly elections

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) postponed the governorship and state assembly elections for a week.

The election scheduled for Saturday March 11 will now be held on Saturday March 18, the commission said in a statement by its spokesman, Festus Okoye, on Wednesday night.

The first round of elections – the presidential and national assembly elections – took place as scheduled on February 25.

The statement said the postponement was to create adequate time to reorganize the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) before the governorship and state assembly elections.

The Presidential Electoral Court has prevented the commission from destroying all sensitive materials – including BVAS – used to conduct the presidential election following requests from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labor Party (LP) candidates, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi, respectively, who rejected the results of the presidential election.

The opposition candidates, who came second and third, rejected the emergence of the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, as the winner of the election and called for another round of elections or be declared the winner.

To prepare his suit to challenge the result, he approached the court seeking permission to inspect all sensitive materials and prevent INEC from interfering.

When INEC approached the court on Monday seeking permission to reconfigure BVAS, the request was only granted on Wednesday, two days to the start date of the governorship election.

“While the judgment of the Court enables the Commission to start preparing the BVAS for the Governorship and State Assembly elections, it is too late for the reconfiguration to be completed,” Mr. Okoye said in a statement on Wednesday.

“As a result, the Commission has taken the difficult but necessary decision to reschedule the Governorship and State Assembly elections that will now be held on Saturday 18 March 2023. With this decision, the campaign will continue until midnight on Thursday 16 March 2023 which is 24 hours before the event . a new date for the election.”

INEC said the decision was taken to ensure that there is enough time to back up the data stored in the more than 176,000 BVAS machines from the Presidential and National Assembly elections “and then reorganize them for the Governorship and State Assembly elections.”

The commission, however, stated that it is not against the litigants who examine the election materials, promising to give all the necessary access to continue the case in court.

“However, we would like to emphasize that the Commission is not against litigants who review election materials. Consequently, it will continue to give all litigants access to the materials they need to pursue their cases in court.

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

But for the latest postponement, the 2023 general election would go down in history as the first scheduled election since 2015.

In 2015, INEC postponed the election by six weeks when the security agency said it was launching a six-week special operation against Boko Haram insurgents in the northeast and would not be available for the election.

In 2019, the election was delayed by hours until the start of the election, due to logistical and operational problems.

Read the full statement from INEC below.

PRESS RELEASE OF THE INDEPENDENT NATIONAL ELECTION COMMISSION FOR THE SCHEDULING OF GOVERNMENT SPACE AND STATE COUNCIL ELECTIONS Following the decision of the Presidential Election Application Assembly (EPT) today regarding the reconfiguration of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) on February 20, 2020 used for the 2020 Presidential Election. The Commission met to assess its impact on the preparation of the Commission for the Governorship and State House of Assembly elections scheduled for Saturday, March 11, 2023. Nigerians will recall that on March 3, 2023, the EPT President has given an ex-parte order to some political. party to check the materials used for the Presidential Election, including forensic inspection over 176,000 BVAS used in the Election which is located in INEC LGA offices throughout the country. The Commission approached the Tribunal to reconsider the order, as the BVAS System will be deployed for Governor and State Assembly elections and the lack of a clear timeframe for inspections could hamper the Commission’s ability to conduct extraordinary elections. For example, BVAS can only be activated on certain dates and times of elections. After being used for the Presidential and National Assembly elections on February 25, 2023, BVAS must be reconfigured for activation on the date of the Governor and State Assembly elections. While the decision of the Court enables the Commission to start preparing the BVAS for the Governor and State Assembly Elections, it is too late for the reconfiguration to be completed. Consequently, the Commission has taken the difficult but necessary decision to reschedule the Governor and State Assembly elections that will now be held on Saturday 18 March 2023. With this decision, the campaign will continue until midnight on Thursday 16 March 2023 which is 24 hours before the new one. date for election. This decision is not taken lightly but it is necessary to ensure that there is enough time to back up the data stored in more than 176,000 BVAS machines from the Presidential and National Assembly elections held on February 25, 2023 and then reconfigure for the Governor. and State Assembly elections. This has been the practice for all elections, including the time when the Commission used Smart Card Readers. However, we would like to reiterate that the Commission is not against litigants who review election materials. Consequently, it will continue to give all litigants access to the material they need to pursue their case in court. We want to assure all political parties and candidates that data from the Presidential and National Assembly elections will be backed up and available on INEC’s cloud facilities, including the INEC Results Viewing Portal (IReV). Political parties can apply for a Certified True Copy of the BVAS backend data. Also, the results in BVAS will continue to be available in IReV for access by interested parties. We thank Nigerians and our friends in Nigeria for their understanding as we continue to deal with these difficult issues and navigate these difficult times. Barr. Festus Okoye National Commissioner & Chairman of Voter Information and Education Committee Wednesday March 8, 2023

Qosim Suleiman is a journalist at Premium Times in partnership Report to the Worldwhich matches local newsrooms with emerging journalists with a talent for reporting on issues not covered around the world