By Iliya Kure
Nigeria’s election body, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced the postponement of Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly elections till next week 23 February.
The decision was announced few hours to the election after a meeting of stakeholders including INEC chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu and 12 national commissioners in Abuja.
According to him the presidential and national assembly elections will hold on 23rd February, while the governorship and state assembly will hold on 9th March.
Yakubu attributed the postponement of all the scheduled elections to logistic and operational problems, saying the new dates will afford the commission the opportunity to address the identified challenges in order to maintain the quality of Nigeria’s elections.
Presidential and National Assembly elections were scheduled to take place throughout the country Saturday, while governorship and state assembly elections were slated for 2 March.
The national elections are expected to hold at 119,973 polling units across the country while collation of results will take place in 8,809 Registration Areas or Wards, 774 Local Government Areas and 36 States and the FCT.
It will not be the first time that the commission would postpone a scheduled general election.
In 2015, the presidential election was shifted from February 14 to March 28th, 2015; while the governorship and assembly elections scheduled for 28 February were shifted to 11 April.
