The Independent National Electoral Commission has cancelled the presidential and National Assembly elections earlier scheduled for today and shifted i
The Independent National Electoral Commission has cancelled the presidential and National Assembly elections earlier scheduled for today and shifted it to next week 23 February while the governorship, house of assembly, FCT area council elections all earlier scheduled for March 2 to March 9.
INEC chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu attributed the shift of the presidential election, and postponement of all the scheduled elections to logistic and operational problems. He said the postponement will afford the commission the opportunity to address the identified challenges in order to maintain the quality of Nigeria’s elections.
The postponement of the election came after more than six hours of meeting between INEC chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu and 12 national commissioners in Abuja. The meeting, which began Friday evening ended early on Saturday. Professor Yakubu said the INEC will be meeting all stakeholders at 2pm on Saturday at the International Conference Centre in Abuja to explain the commission’s position.
Rotimi Oyekanmi, the chief press secretary to the INEC chairman had hinted newsmen earlier that some decisions about the election had been reached and that the decision would be communicated later.
The national elections are expected to hold at 119,973 polling units across the country while collation of results will take place in 8,809 Registration Areas or Wards, 774 Local Government Areas and 36 States and the FCT.
It will not be the first time that the commission would postpone a scheduled general election. In 2015, the presidential election was shifted from February 14 to March 28th, 2015; while the governorship and assembly elections scheduled for 28 February were shifted to 11 April.
