What Next after INEC’s Guber Election Postponement?

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) recently announced the postponement of the March 11 governorship and state assembly elections by one week.

Development Diaries reports that the commission cited logistics issues stemming from the reconfiguration of the bimodal voter accreditation system (BVAS) machines used during the February 25 presidential and National Assembly elections.

Does the law allow INEC to postpone elections? Yes, it does. Section 24, subsection two, of the Electoral Act 2022 stipulates that the electoral commission can postpone an election when there are concerns or emergencies.

However, what should be of concern is if postponing the elections will ensure the commission conducts free, fair, credible, and transparent elections on 18 March.

INEC had four years to prepare for this year’s general election, but it still fell short in its performance. Would the commission be able to restore the already lost confidence of the people in its operations?

Concerns relating to INEC’s reconfiguration of the BVAS machines used for the presidential polls have been raised by some election observers, including the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room.

Recall that INEC, prior to the 2023 elections, informed Nigerians that it was ready to introduce the Election Result Viewing (IReV) portal to strengthen its election management process and enhance the transparency of the system.

Unfortunately, what played out during the presidential polls was quite different as not all the results were uploaded to the IReV portal before winners were declared by the commission.

There were reports, too, of INEC presiding officers deliberately refusing to upload the form EC 8A after counting the results from polling units.

That action contravened section 60 of the Electoral Act 2022, which provides that the presiding officer at an election, after counting and announcing the result at the polling unit, shall transfer the results of the ballot in a manner as prescribed by the commission.

Asides from the BVAS failure, many Nigerians were disenfranchised, as noticed by local and international observers, due to the late arrival and non-arrival of INEC officials to various polling units across the country. This was an obvious problem of logistics.

In light of these challenges, Development Diaries believes that INEC needs to assure Nigerians that the postponement would lead to better conduct of the March 18 polls.

As it concerns the BVAS reconfiguration, we urge INEC to clarify to the public how it intends to ensure that data collected in the BVAS used in the presidential election will be preserved for use in the review and audit of the elections.

We also call on the electoral umpire to ensure it steps up in the area of logistics to ensure that polls open and close at the stipulated time.

Photo source: Channels TV

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