The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has given reasons why it had to postpone the earlier scheduled Governorship and State Houses of Assembly election that were initially planned to take place on March 11, 2023.
The Commission explained that the ruling by the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (EPT) (Court of Appeal), on the reconfiguration of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) used for the Presidential election held on February 25, 2023, formed the basis for the postponement of Saturday, March 11, 2023 Governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections.
These were contained in a statement by the Commission’s National Commissioner for Information, Mr. Festus Okoye, who said that the decision to postpone the Saturday, March 11, 2023 Governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections had not been taken lightly but, 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.
Okoye further said that the development had been the practice for all elections, including the period when the Commission was using the Smart Card Readers.
The Court of Appeal had on March 3, 2023, granted an ex-parte order for the Labour Party (LP) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) 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.
However, INEC later approached the Court of Appeal urging it to reconsider the order against the backdrop of the fact that the BVAS Systems were to be deployed in States for the governorship and State Assembly elections. The Commission said that the lack of a clearly defined time frame for the inspection could disrupt its ability to conduct the outstanding elections.
Find below, the statement by INEC postponing the Governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections.
