The election of governors and local deputies scheduled for Saturday March 11 in Nigeria has been postponed for a week due to a late court decision, the Electoral Commission (INEC) announced on Wednesday evening.
"
The Commission has taken the difficult but necessary decision to reschedule the gubernatorial and local assembly elections, which will now take place on Saturday, March 18, 2023
," she said.
A tainted presidential
A Nigerian court on Wednesday authorized electoral authorities to reconfigure the machines used in the presidential election, a decision too late "
for the reconfiguration to be completed
" in time, the INEC said in a statement.
The Commission also said it wanted “
to have enough time
” to save the data stored on the BVAS machines, used during the presidential election of February 25, tainted by accusations of “
massive fraud
” by the opposition.
Bola Tinubu, former governor of Lagos, won 8.8 million votes in the race to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari, against 6.9 million for Atiku Abubakar, of the main opposition party (PDP), and 6.1 million for Peter Obi, of the Labor Party, surprise candidate of urban and connected youth.
The poll was marked by serious technical failures and numerous delays in the electronic transmission of results, provoking the ire of some voters.
Bola Tinubu's two opponents disputed the results, denouncing "
manipulations
".
Read alsoBola Tinubu takes charge of a Nigeria in crisis
Doubts around voting machines
Earlier Wednesday in the day, justice had rejected the request of Peter Obi and his team to inspect the BVAS machines before their reconfiguration.
In its press release, however, the Commission declared that
it was “not opposed to the parties to the dispute inspecting the electoral material
”.
"
She will continue to grant all litigants access to the material (...) to pursue their cases in court
," she continued.
During the presidential election, many Nigerians expected to follow the progressive release of results online, but the online portal was very slow to update.
This slowness has caused confusion and anger, although the law does not require electronic results to be published before the official results are announced.
In the past, Nigerian elections have often been marred by suspicions of fraud and vote buying.