2023: INEC Postpones Governorship, State Assembly Elections

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has postponed the March 11 governorship and state assembly elections by one week.

By this development, the governorship and state assembly elections will now hold on March 18, 2023.

The announcement was made in a press statement signed by the national commissioner and chairman, Information and Voter Education, Barr. Festus Okoye in Abuja, last night.

Okoye said following the 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 level of preparations for the Governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections scheduled for Saturday, March 11, 2023, and was forced to postpone the polls.

He said while the ruling of the Tribunal made it possible for the Commission to commence the preparation of the BVAS for the Governorship and State Assembly elections, it came far too late for the reconfiguration to be concluded before the polls.

Consequently, he said the Commission had 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,” he said.

He noted that 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,” he said.

He said the Commission’s 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,” he said.

He, however, reiterated 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,” he said.

He recalled 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,” he added.

Speaking on BVAS, the managing director of AgentX Security Group, Timothy Avele, said because the BVAS are near-real-time machines, INEC will be able to conclude the reconfiguration process in good time before the governorship and state assembly elections.

According to him, the only process that may take some time is the backup of data.

Meanwhile, the Appeal Court also granted the request of the president-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, to inspect INEC’s materials for the conduct of the elections to prepare for the defence of his victory at the polls which is being contested by two of his opponents.

INEC had asked the court for an order to reconfigure the BVAS for use in the March 11 governorship and state assembly elections.

The candidate of the Labour party in the February 25 presidential election, Mr Peter Obi and other chieftains of the party were at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal to witness proceedings.

In the company of Obi at the tribunal were the chairman of the party, Mr Julius Aburi, Senator Victor Umeh and others.

A three-member panel of the appellate court led by Joseph Ikyegh granted permission to the electoral body to reconfigure the machines ahead of Saturday’s governorship and Houses of Assembly elections across the 36 states of the federation.

The panel, however, ordered INEC to upload the data on the BVAS machines to the back-end server and make certified true copies of the data to the respondents.

The court had earlier granted an order permitting the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Abubakar Atiku, and his Labour Party counterpart, Peter Obi, to inspect the BVAS machines and other sensitive electoral materials.

The opposition candidates who came second and third behind the president-elect, Bola Tinubu, of the All Progressives Congress (APC), had requested access to the electoral materials preparatory to filing their petitions to challenge the outcomes of the 25 presidential elections in court.

Apart from granting them access to the materials, the court had, in its ruling delivered on March 3, also restrained INEC from tampering with the BVAS machines pending the inspection to be conducted by the candidates.

But INEC subsequently filed an ex parte application on March 4 urging the Court of Appeal to vary the ex parte order made in favour of the PDP and the Labour Party candidates.

INEC had asked the court to vary the order to allow it to reconfigure the BVAS machines for the March 11 governorship and state houses of assembly

The commission’s lawyer, Tanimu Inuwa, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), said the application became necessary following an order restraining it from tampering with the information embedded in the BVAS machines until the due inspection was conducted and certified.

He added that the commission would require sufficient time to reconfigure the BVAS needed to conduct the election that would take place on Saturday. He told the court that INEC would upload from the back end.