Nigeria postponed gubernatorial and state legislative elections by a week to give the electoral commission more time to reconfigure electronic voter identification devices, after court hearings delayed the process.
(Bloomberg) — Nigeria postponed gubernatorial and state legislative elections by a week to give the electoral commission more time to reconfigure electronic voter identification devices, after court hearings delayed the process.
The elections will be held on March 18 instead of Saturday, the Independent National Electoral Commission said in an emailed statement late on Wednesday. The delay will enable the commission to backup data available on 176,000 bimodal voter accreditation systems used during the nation’s Feb. 25 presidential election.
A court on Wednesday dismissed objections by opposition parties trying to stop the electoral commission from reconfiguring the devices for fear that data stored on them will be tampered with or wiped out as they challenge the results from the presidential election.
The ruling “has come far too late for the reconfiguration to be concluded,” INEC said. “This decision has not been taken lightly, but it is necessary to ensure that there is adequate time to back up the data.”
The two runners-up in the presidential election won by ruling-party candidate Bola Tinubu are contesting the outcome and last week secured Court of Appeal orders granting them access to tablets used at polling stations to accredit voters and transmit results.
The electoral commission said that data from the presidential and National Assembly elections will be backed up and available on its cloud facilities, including a results-viewing portal that failed to work on election day.
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