The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) yesterday postponed the governorship and state legislative elections slated for Saturday, March 11, to March 18. The announcement was made hours after the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja gave the electoral body the go-ahead to reconfigure the bimodal voter accreditation system (BVAS) used for the conduct of the February 25, presidential and national assembly elections.
INEC’s national commissioner and chairman information and voter education committee, Mr. Festus Okoye said in a statement Wednesday night that the decision to shelve the March 11 polls was taken at the commission’s management meeting in Abuja after the court gave it the permission to reconfigure the BIVAS machines.
Okoye explained that the electoral body could not proceed with the election as earlier scheduled because it needed time to reconfigure the machines, which were used for the presidential election and national assembly elections.
“Following today’s (yesterday’s) ruling by the presidential election petition tribunal (EPT) on the reconfiguration of the BVAS used for the presidential election held on February 25, 2023, the commission met to assess its impact on the commission’s preparations for the governorship and state Houses of Assembly elections scheduled for Saturday, March 11, 2023.
“Nigerians would recall that on March 3, 2023, the presidential EPT had given 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 LGA offices across the country.
“The commission approached the tribunal to reconsider the order, given that the BVAS systems were to be deployed for the governorship and state Assembly elections and that the lack of a clearly defined timeframe for the inspection could disrupt the commission’s ability to conduct the outstanding elections,” Okoye said.
The commissioner stated that the BVAS could only be activated on the specific date and time of an election. He added that having been used for the presidential and national assembly elections, it was necessary to reconfigure the BVAS for activation on the date of the governorship and state Assembly elections.
He added that while the ruling of the tribunal made 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 to be concluded.
“Consequently, the commission has taken the difficult but necessary decision to reschedule the governorship and state assembly elections, which will now take place on Saturday, 18th March 2023.
“This decision has not been taken lightly, but it is necessary to ensure that there was 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,” he said.
By reason of the postponement, the INEC commissioner said, “Campaigns will continue until midnight of Thursday March 16, 2023, i.e. 24 hours before the new date for the election.”
He assured the political parties and their 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).”
He said the political parties are free to apply for the certified true copies of the backend data of the BVAS, adding that the results on the BVAS “will continue to be available on the IReV for interested parties to access.”
