The election will now take place on March 18, says the election commission
Nigeria’s election commission has postponed the March 11 election for state governors.
“The commission has taken the difficult but necessary decision to reschedule the governorship and state House of Assembly elections, which will now take place on Saturday 18th March, 20123,” Festis Okoye, an Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) official, said in a statement.
He believes the commission may not have enough time to reconfigure 176,000 election accreditation machines for use in 774 local government areas (counties) across the country before March 11, the initial date for the second round of voting.
On March 3, a court ordered the INEC to give some political parties access to election materials used in the Feb. 25 presidential election.
While accepting the court order, the electoral body also requested permission to reconfigure the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, or BVAS, machines ahead of the state governor election, which the court granted on Wednesday.
The results of the elections, which declared governing All Progressive Congress candidate Bola Tinubu the winner as declared by INEC, are being challenged by opposition parties.
