By Emeka Ugwuanyi
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has postponed the governorship and state house of assembly elections scheduled for Saturday, March 11 to March 18
The Commission said the postponement became inevitable following approval by the Presidential Election Tribunal for the presidential and national assembly elections held February 25, mandating it (INEC) to reconfigure Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines used in the elections.
To create time for the reconfiguration, INEC had to reschedule March 11 elections by one week to March 18, 2023.
Within the one week, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) would be able to retrieve all the BVAS and return them to Abuja for the reconfiguration, return them to the states and various polling units across the country. The reconfiguration will enable INEC upload election results right from the polling units to its website.
“The postponement was due to the inability of the commission to commence the reconfiguration of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines used for the February 25 presidential and National Assembly elections to enable their use for the state elections.
“You know that the BVAS reconfiguration would take three or four days and since they would all be moved to the headquarters in Abuja, the machines would be reconfigured and deployed to the various states and finally to the polling units,” INEC official told Daily Trust.
This is the third consecutive general elections that will be postponed by INEC.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Court of Appeal granted INEC’s request to reconfigure BVAS for the governorship and state assembly elections.
