INEC postpones governorship, state assembly elections to March 18

Chigozie Ikpo, Abuja

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC has postponed the governorship and state assembly elections scheduled to hold on March 11 by one week.

The elections will now hold on March 18, 2023 while campaigns by andidates are expected in the midnight of Thursday March 16.

The postponement was contained in a statement last night by Barr. Festus Okoye, the National Commissioner & Chairman Information and Voter Education Committee.

According to him, the decision to reschedule the polls is connected with the request of the INEC for the Court to grant it leave to reconfigure the BVAS machine ahead of the elections.

The decision was made during a meeting of INEC directors on Wednesday evening.

Recall that the Presidential Election Petition Court sitting at the Court of Appeal in Abuja, on Wednesday, also granted INEC the power to reconfigure the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System it used for the presidential election.

Mr. Okoye’s statement titled, ‘Rescheduling of Governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections’ read:
“Following today’s 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 Commission’s preparations for the Governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections scheduled for Saturday, 11th March 2023.

“Nigerians would recall 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. For instance, 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.

“While the ruling of the Tribunal makes it possible for the Commission to commence the preparation of the BVAS for the Governorship and State Assembly elections, it has come far too late for the reconfiguration to be concluded.

“Consequently, the Commission has 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.

“This 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.

“However, we wish to reiterate 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”.

Earlier the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja had granted the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), permission to reconfigure the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BIVAS) machine ahead of the forthcoming March 11 Gubernatorial and State House of Assembly elections.
Delivering the Lead Judgement by the 3-man panel of the Appellate Court, Justice Joseph Ikyegh struck out a motion on notice filed by the Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, praying the court to stop INEC from reconfiguring the BVAS machine as they could tamper with the data in the machine.
The Court held that the information on the BVAS machine would be uploaded in the backend and will remain intact and accessible anytime.
Justice Ikyegh held that granting the request would jeopardize the electoral body in the conduct of the March 11 Governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections.
The Appellate Court predicated its agreement with INEC on the ground that all averments in the counter affidavit of the Electoral body were not challenged.
The Court said that granting the request of Obi and the Labour Party would tie down the hand of INEC and impede the conduct of the Saturday’s gubernatorial election.
The Court further held that the claims of INEC that information on the BVAS devices cannot be tampered with during uploading was not attacked by Obi and as such, deemed authentic.
Also, the Court struck out an application by INEC asking the Court to set aside the ex-parte order of March 3, granting permission to Obi and the Labour Party, to scan forensic data and makes photocopies of voter register, ballot papers and to inspect all materials used in the February 25 presidential election.
The court held INEC in its application did not specifically state which of the orders should be varied.
The court held that the claim of INEC that the order will expose Nigerians who voted for who is not genuine as the rulling of March 3 did not grant Obi access to the electronic database uploaded in the cloud.
The court stated that what she granted on March 3 was electronic scanning and photocopy making of the ballot papers and Forensic inspection of BVAS used during the February 25 presidential election.

In a related development the Court of Appeal in Abuja on Wednesday ordered the INEC) to allow Nigeria’s president-elect, Bola Tinubu, to inspect electoral materials used for the conduct of the presidential election.

INEC conducted the presidential and National Assembly elections on 25 February.

Daily Champion recall that on 1 March, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, INEC’s chairman, declared Tinubu, who is the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) winner of the election.
He scored 8.8million votes to beat Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) who came third.

However, in the ruling on Wednesday, a three-member panel of the Court of Appeal led by Joseph Ikyegh, said “after reading the applicants motion exparte, I am satisfied that there is substance in the application. I accordingly grant him leave to inspect, scan and make photocopies of some of the electoral materials.”

Tinubu had filed an ex parte application on Tuesday urging the court to allow him have access to the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System machines which were used in the conduct of the polls.

The President -elect intends to inspect the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) machines and election results amongst others, in preparation for his defence at the Presidential Election Petition Court, should Atiku and Mr Obi file a formal petition to challenge his victory.

During the hearing of the application, the Tinubu’s lawyer, Akintola Makinde, prayed the court to grant him leave “to inspect, scan and make photocopies of some of the electoral materials” to enable him prepare his defence against Atiku and Obi’s challenge at the tribunal.

“The materials will be relevant in helping us to prepare our defence and also make comparison with the information contained in INEC’s back-end server,” Mr Makinde stated while moving the ex parte request.

Mr Tinubu filed the application alongside his party, the APC.

Similarly, Atiku and Mr Obi alongside their political parties have obtained the same permission from the court to inspect sensitive electoral materials that were used in the conduct of the election.