By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced the postponement of the governorship and state houses of assemblies elections earlier scheduled to take place this weekend.
In a statement issued on Wednesday night by the spokesman of the commission, Mr Festus Okoye, it was stated that the polls have now been moved to next weekend.
INEC had fixed Saturday, March 11, 2023, for the exercise, but due to a ruling by the court of appeal sitting in Abuja, the electoral empire has moved the polls to Saturday, March 18, 2023.
Yesterday, the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal granted the request of INEC to reconfigure the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines used for the presidential and National Assembly elections held on Saturday, February 25, 2023.
The electoral body had argued that it would need about five days to reconfigure the machines ready for use for the gubernatorial elections.
The court had to intervene because the candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr Atiku Abubakar, and of the Labour Party (LP), Mr Peter Obi, who challenged the outcome of the presidential poll, had obtained orders from the court to inspect the materials used for the exercise.
They were given permission to do a forensic inspection of the over 176,000 BVAS machines used for the exercise.
However, INEC reassured “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 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.”
After Wednesday’s ruling, INEC had a meeting with its top staff, and it was decided that the exercise should be extended by one week to enable the commission to conduct smooth elections.
