Nigeria Postpones Election Of State Governors

Nigeria’s electoral commission has postponed elections for state governors and local assemblies by one week.

The polls had been scheduled to take place on Saturday. They will now be held on 18 March.

Nigeria’s opposition had asked to check electronic voting machines. A court rejected their complaint. But the electoral commission said the legal challenge had held up preparations and the machines would not be ready in time.

It is not uncommon for elections to be delayed in the country.

In 2019 presidential and parliamentary elections were postponed for a week. The electoral body cited logistical issues.

The opposition has disputed last month’s election victory by President- elect Bolu Tinubu.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec) introduced the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) for the first time as part of new technologies used in this year’s elections in a bid to improve transparency.

But observer groups and opposition parties said huge delays in voting and failures in the system when uploading tallies allowed for ballot disparities during the presidential election.

Source: BBC