Tobias Sylvester
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has decided to postpone Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly elections till next week 23rd February 2019.
The Governorship, State House of Assembly and the FCT Area Council Elections which was scheduled to take place on 2nd March is now shifted to 9th March 2019.
Multiple sources close to the electoral commission said the postponement being considered is due to some logistics challenges being faced by the commission in many states.
The electoral body is facing difficulty distributing sensitive electoral materials to some states of the federation, an official said.
The decision to postponed the elections was reached early today during an emergency meeting between INEC chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu and 12 national commissioners in Abuja, according to sources close to the meeting.
The meeting, which began Friday evening, was still in progress up till 1.30 a.m.
Professor Yakubu later announced the postponement around 2.45 am on Saturday, February 16, after the emergency meeting. He said proceeding with the election as scheduled is no longer feasible and as result of this, the election was postponed by a week.
Breaking News: The #NigeriaDecides2019 Elections now to hold on; 23rd February, 2019 for Presidential and National Assembly while the Governorship, State House of Assembly and the FCT Area Council Elections is to hold on 9th March, 2019. pic.twitter.com/6zhvBLQe2a
— INEC Nigeria (@inecnigeria) February 16, 2019
Going by the new dates, Presidential and National Assembly elections will now hold on Saturday, February 23 while the Governorship and State Assembly elections will hold on Saturday, March 9.
The national elections are expected to hold at 119,973 polling units across the country while collation of results will take place in 8,809 Registration Areas or Wards, 774 Local Government Areas and 36 States and the FCT.
It will not be the first time that the commission would postpone a scheduled general election.
In 2015, the presidential election was shifted from February 14 to March 28th, 2015; while the governorship and assembly elections scheduled for 28 February were shifted to 11 April.
