The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC has confirmed postponing the March 11 states Governorship and House of Assembly elections to March 18.
National Commissioner & Chairman Information and Voter Education Committee, Barr Festus Okoye disclosed this in a statement on Wednesday.
The commission said its decision to reschedule the elections became inevitable following Wednesday’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.
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.
The statement added that decision would enable the commission sufficiently back up data stored on the over 176,000 BVAS machines from the last elections and reconfigure to suit the International elections.
INEC ensured litigants that all data from the last presidential and National assembly elections are available.
“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”, the statement reads in part.