The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has rescheduled the Saturday, March 11 Governorship and State Houses of Assemblies elections by one week.
The Commission in a statement by its National Commissioner, in charge of Information and Voter Education, Festus Okoye, said the elections have been moved from March 11 to March 18, 2023.
Okoye said the decision followed Wednesday’s ruling by the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal on the reconfiguration of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS used for the Presidential election held on February 25, 2023.
He said the Commission met to assess the impact of the court ruling on its preparations for the Governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections scheduled for Saturday, March 11, 2023, before arriving at the decision to reschedule the election.
The Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal had on Friday, March 3, 2023, granted 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 Local Government Area offices across the country.
The Commission however approached the Tribunal to reconsider the order, given that the BVAS machines were to be deployed for the Governorship and State Assembly elections.
INEC then observed that the lack of a clearly defined timeframe for the inspection could disrupt its ability to conduct the outstanding elections, noting that the BVAS can only be activated on the specific date and time of an election and having been used for the Presidential and National Assembly elections on February 25, 2023, it is necessary to reconfigure the BVAS for activation on the date of the Governorship and State Assembly elections.
It noted that while the Tribunal makes it possible for the Commission to commence the preparation of the BVAS machines for the Governorship and State Assembly elections, it has come far too late for the reconfiguration to be concluded.
Consequently, the Commission took the difficult but necessary decision to reschedule the Governorship and State Assembly elections and by the new date election, campaigns will continue until midnight of Thursday, March 16, 2023, which is 24 hours before the new date for the election.
INEC said though the decision has not been taken lightly, 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 February 25, 2023, and then to reconfigure them for the Governorship and State Assembly elections.
It however reassures 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 the INEC Results Viewing Portal, IReV, adding that political parties can apply for Certified True Copies of the backend data of the BVAS.
(Editor: Terverr Tyav)
