The Independent National Electoral Commission has decided to shift Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly elections till next week 23 February.
The governorship and house of assembly, FCT area council elections have also been shifted from 2 March to 9 March.
INEC chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu confirmed NAN report of the shift of the presidential election, attributing the postponement of all the scheduled elections to logistic and operational problems.
He said the postponement will afford the commission the opportunity to address the identified challenges in order to maintain the quality of Nigeria’s elections.
The postponement of the election came after more than six hours of meeting between INEC chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu and 12 national commissioners in Abuja.
The meeting, which began Friday evening and ended early on Saturday.
Professor Yakubu said the INEC will be meeting all stakeholders at 2pm on Saturday at the International Conference Centre in Abuja to explain the commission’s position.
Rotimi Oyekanmi, the chief press secretary to the INEC chairman had hinted newsmen earlier that some decisions about the election had been reached and that the decision would be communicated later.
“I can confirm to you that the INEC Chairman and the 12 national commissioners are in the meeting.
” Decisions have been taken and you will be addressed later,” Oyekanmi said.
Presidential and National Assembly elections were scheduled to take place throughout the country today, 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.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) met on Friday, 15th February 2019 and reviewed its preparations for the 2019 General Election scheduled for Saturday, 16th February 2019 and Saturday, 2nd March 2019.
Following a careful review of the implementation of its logistics and operational plan and the determination to conduct free, fair and credible elections, the Commission came to the conclusion that proceeding with the elections as scheduled is no longer feasible.
Consequently, the Commission has decided to reschedule the Presidential and National Assembly Elections to Saturday, 23rd February 2019. Furthermore, the Governorship, State House of Assembly and Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Area Council Elections is rescheduled to Saturday 9th March 2019. This will afford the Commission the opportunity to address identified challenges in order to maintain the quality of our elections.
This was a difficult decision for the Commission to take, but necessary for the successful delivery of the elections and the consolidation of democracy.
The Commission will meet key stakeholders to update them on this development at 2p.m. on Saturday, 16th February 2019 at the Abuja International Conference Centre.
