Why We Rescheduled Guber, State Assembly Polls – INEC
Emergency Dijest.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) last night postponed the Saturday, March 11, governorship and state assembly elections to March 18, 2023.
The commission announced the postponement of the elections at the end of its management meeting, chaired by the chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, in Abuja.
The commission, in a statement issued at 11:20 pm by its National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, said the postponement was a result of the litigation against the electoral body.
He said that following Wednesday’s ruling by the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (EPT) on the reconfiguration of the BVAS used for the presidential election held on February 25, 2023, the commission met to assess its impact on its preparations for the governorship and state house of assembly elections scheduled for March 11, 2023.
He recalled that on March 3, 2023, the Presidential EPT gave an ex parte order for some political parties to inspect materials used for the presidential election, including the forensic inspection of over 176,000 BVAS used in the election, which are located in INEC LGA offices across the country.
“The commission approached the tribunal to reconsider the order, given that the BVAS systems were to be deployed for the governorship and state assembly elections and that the lack of a clearly defined timeframe for the inspection could disrupt the commission’s ability to conduct the outstanding elections.
“For instance, the BVAS can only be activated on the specific date and time of an election. Having been used for the presidential and National Assembly elections on 25th February 2023, it is necessary to reconfigure the BVAS for activation on the date of the governorship and state assembly elections.
“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, 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.
“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 Card Readers (SCRs),” Okoye said.
Commission gets nod to reconfigure BVAS
Meanwhile, the Court of Appeal in Abuja yesterday approved the application by the INEC to reconfigure the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) used for the February 25 presidential election. A three-member panel of justices led by Justice Joseph Ikyegh ruled that the reconfiguration was to enable the commission to conduct the March 11 governorship and state assembly elections.
The Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Peter Obi, had sought access to inspect, scan and make photocopies of sensitive election material used for the conduct of the election.
The panel, however, refused Obi and LP’s relief to restrain INEC from tampering with the information embedded in the BVAS machines until the due inspection was conducted and certified true copies were issued.
The justices held that the governorship election date was statutory and as such, the court would not grant any application that sought to constrain it.
The panel, which agreed that the request was grantable, however, refused the application to stop IN
