March 18: Why We Postponed Governorship, State Assembly Election By One Week – INEC

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has revealed why Saturday’s governorship and state assembly elections were postponed to March 18, 2023.

INEC’s decision was due to the commission’s inability to reconfigure the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines used during the February 25 presidential and National Assembly elections to enable their use in the state elections.

The Presidential Election Tribunal had restrained the commission from tampering with all sensitive materials, including the BVAS, used in the conduct of the presidential election.

This followed the request by the candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party (LP), Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi, respectively, who rejected the outcome of the presidential election.

The opposition candidates, who came second and third respectively, rejected the emergence of the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, as winner of the election and called for the conduct of another round of elections or be declared the winner.

In preparation of a suit to challenge the outcome, they approached the court seeking permission to inspect all sensitive materials and restrain INEC from tampering with them.

While INEC approached the court on Monday to seek permission to reconfigure the BVAS, the request was only granted on Wednesday, two days before the governorship election which was initially slated for March 11.

INEC Postpones Elections

In a statement on Wednesday night, INEC National Commissioner for Voter Education, Festus Okoye, said the governorship and state assembly elections will now hold on Saturday, March 18.

Okoye said the decision was taken 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 “and then to reconfigure them for the Governorship and State Assembly elections.”

The statement reads, “Following today’s ruling by the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (EPT) on the reconfiguration of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) used for the Presidential election held on 25th February 2023, the Commission met to assess its impact on the Commission’s preparations for the Governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections scheduled for Saturday, 11th March 2023.

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. Consequently, 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. By this decision, campaigns will continue until midnight of Thursday 16th March 2023 i.e. 24 hours before the new date for the election.

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. 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. 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.

“We thank Nigerians and friends of Nigeria for their understanding as we continue to deal with these difficult issues and navigate these challenging times. Barr. Festus Okoye National Commissioner & Chairman Information and Voter Education Committee Wednesday 8th March 2023.”

KanyiDaily recalls that Peter Obi had gone to court on Tuesday with his lawyers after the INEC refused to allow the Labour Party to inspect materials used during the presidential election.