The Independent National Electoral Commission has postponed the governorship and state assembly elections till March 18.
INEC confirmed the development in a statement issued at the wee hours of Thursday and signed by Festus Okoye, INEC national commissioner and chairman.
The electoral body took the decision on the issue at a meeting of its national commissioner on Wednesday night.
The postponement according to INEC was due to the inability of the commission to commence the re-configuration of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines used for the February 25 presidential and National Assembly elections, to subsequently enable their use for the governorship elections.
Since the conclusion of the presidential and national assembly polls, the electoral body has been in court over the application seeking to extract data embedded in the bimodal voter accreditation system (BVAS) and inspect other election materials.
INEC approached the Court on Monday to seek permission to reconfigure the BVAS, however the request was only granted on Wednesday, two days to the election.
According to electoral body, the shift is necessary to allow reconfiguration of BVAS machines following leave granted commission by the Court of Appeal on Wednesday.
On Wednesday, the court of appeal refused an application by Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), to restrain INEC from reconfiguring the bimodal voter accreditation system (BVAS) ahead of the governorship and state assembly elections.
INEC said 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”.
The statement reads: “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 18 March 2023. By this decision, campaigns will continue until midnight of Thursday 16 March 2023 i.e. 24 hours before the new date for the election.”
“This decision has not been taken lightly but it is necessary to ensure that there is adequate time to back up the data stored on the over 176,000 BVAS machines from the Presidential and National Assembly elections held on 25th February 2023 and then to reconfigure them for the Governorship and State Assembly elections.
INEC, in a statement late Wednesday signed by Festus Okoye, INEC national commissioner and chairman, information and voter education committee, said 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”.
“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 18 March 2023. By this decision, campaigns will continue until midnight of Thursday 16 March 2023 i.e. 24 hours before the new date for the election,” the statement reads.
“This decision has not been taken lightly but it is necessary to ensure that there is adequate time to back up the data stored on the over 176,000 BVAS machines from the Presidential and National Assembly elections held on 25th February 2023 and then to reconfigure them for the Governorship and State Assembly elections.
“This has been the practice for all elections, including the period when the Commission was using the Smart 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.
“We thank Nigerians and friends of Nigeria for their understanding as we continue to deal with these difficult issues and navigate these challenging times.”
