Nigeria’s election commission on Wednesday announced elections for state governors and local assemblies have been postponed by one week following a court’s decision over machines used in tallying votes, reported Reuters.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said the move will allow more time for the voting machines to be reconfigured and deployed for the upcoming vote.
The polls were previously scheduled to take place on Saturday. The election for new governors for 28 of Nigeria’s 36 states will now be held on March 18.
Last month, the presidential election results declared Nigeria’s ruling APC party candidate Bolu Tinubu as the winner. But, the opposition has disputed the election results and continues to claim that the election was marred by massive tampering of BVAS voting machines.
Notably, the court rejected the opposition’s demand to halt the re-configuring of BVAS so their teams could check for forensic evidence of ballot rigging claims. But the electoral commission said the opposition’s legal challenge had delayed preparations for the election and the machines won’t get ready on time.
“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,” INEC said.
Back in 2019, the presidential and parliamentary elections in Nigeria were postponed for a week due to logistical issues.
The BVAS machines have been introduced for the first time in last month’s election in a bid to improve transparency. But, according to observer groups and opposition parties, the use of the voting machines resulted in huge delays in voting and failures in the system when uploading tallies allowed for ballot disparities during the presidential election.
Runner-up Atiku Abubakar is demanding for the cancellation of the presidential election while another opposition candidate, Peter Obi, has said he has proof he won the election.
