Why Guber, State Assembly Elections were Rescheduled – INEC

Why Guber, State Assembly Elections were Rescheduled – INEC

By Kabir Akintayo

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has cited reasons for the postponement of Governorship and State House of Assembly elections to 18th of March 2023.

The electoral body said that, permission given by the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (EPT) on the reconfiguration of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) used for the Presidential election, came too late,making the commission not to meet up with March 13th, already scheduled for States elections.

The was contained in a press release by the National Commissioner and Chairman Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, on Wednesday.

Okoye said, the Commission had to make a very difficult but necessary decision to rescheduled the elections to March 18th 2023, stating that, campaign will cease to exit on 16th of March, which is two days to the elections.

He said “Nigerians would recall that on 3rd March 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. For instance, the BVAS can only be activated on the specific date and time of an election. Having been used for the Presidential and National Assembly elections on 25th February 2023, it is necessary to reconfigure the BVAS for activation on the date of the Governorship and State Assembly elections.

“While the ruling of the Tribunal makes 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.” Okoye maintained.

He further said that, the commission is not against any political party not to inspect election materials, adding that, the data will be backed up and available in INEC Cloud facilities.

“This decision has not been taken lightly but 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 25th February 2023 and then to reconfigure them for the Governorship and State Assembly elections. This has been the practice for all elections, including the period when the Commission was using the Smart Card Readers.

“We wish to reassure 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). Political parties can apply for Certified True Copies of the backend data of the BVAS. Also, the results on the BVAS will continue to be available on the IReV for interested parties to access.” Okoye said.