The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has explained why it decided to shift the governorship election till 18 March.
The election, along with state house of assembly elections was initially scheduled for Saturday, March 11.
In a statement on Wednesday night, INEC explained that it shifted the poll because of its inability to re-configure the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines early enough for the state elections.
The BVAS were used for the February 25 presidential and National Assembly elections.
On 3 March, the Presidential Election Tribunal granted ex parte order allowing Labour Party and the Peoples Democratic Party examine materials used for the election.
INEC on Thursday got the Tribunal to vary the order so that it could reconfigure the BVAS for the election.
INEC said the decision came too late. It thus decided to postpone the poll by one week.
A top official said: We need at least three days to reconfigure the BIVAS & today’s Court of Appeal favourable ruling on our request to vary Labour’s ex-parte motion meant we had at most only two days to do so. Which in turn meant we would still be reconfiguring up till Saturday. Hence our decision to shift the elections by a week”.
Read the full statement:
English