The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has postponed the elections for the state house of representatives and governor from March 11 to Saturday 18th March 2023.
Festus Okoye, the INEC National Commissioner for Voter Education, announced the date of the polls in a statement on Wednesday night.
According to him, the Commission convened to determine the impact of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal’s decision on the redesign of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) utilized for the February 25 presidential election on its preparations for the governorship contest.
“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,” he said
According to Okoye, political parties will continue their campaigns through Thursday, March 16, 2023, at midnight, or 24 hours before the new election date.
While the tribunal’s decision will allow INEC to start preparing the BVAS for the gubernatorial and state assembly elections, according to Okoye, it is already too late to complete the reconfiguration.
“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 Smart Card Readers.
“However, we wish to reiterate that the Commission is not against litigants inspecting election materials. Consequently, it will continue to grant all litigants access to the materials they require to pursue their cases in court,” he added.
