The National Assembly elections will now hold on Saturday, April 9 and not on Monday (today) as earlier announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega.
The new date was made public on Sunday by Jega after a two-hour meeting with the national chairmen of the 63 registered political parties in Abuja.
By the new timetable, the presidential and the state Houses of Assembly and governorship will take place on April 16 and April 26 respectively.
It was learnt that at the meeting, the chairmen of the parties told the INEC chairman that it was not possible for the commission to hold the elections today because of the gaps noticed in the election materials and the challenges the postponement posed to all the stakeholders.
The party leaders were believed to have also told Jega that they needed time to prepare for a new date since Monday was too short for them to prepare for the rescheduled polls. Jega had on Saturday declared that the National Assembly elections could no longer hold because of the late arrival of materials. He then announced that it would take place today.
But after the meeting with the party chiefs, he announced fresh dates for all the elections to journalists.
The INEC chairman said the new dates were arrived at after consultation with relevant stakeholders, especially the political parties.
He explained that after Saturday’s announcement, the commission found that the overwhelming “sentiment” among Nigerians was to further reschedule the elections.
Jega said “Since that (Saturday’s) announcement, several representations have been made to the commission urging it to consult more widely and to ensure that the two-day postponement is enough to address all the logistical issues that may militate against a successful conduct of the rescheduled elections.
“Following these representations and subsequent consultations with stakeholders, the commission has found that the overwhelming sentiment is to further reschedule the elections.
“Requests to reschedule the National Assembly elections have come from a cross-section of stakeholders, including political parties and civil society organisations.
“However, rescheduling the National Assembly elections would have implications for the schedule of all the other elections. Consequently, the commission weighed all the options and considered the wide ranging counsel of Nigerians and decided to reschedule all the elections as follows.”
He expressed INEC ’s appreciation to Nigerians for their enthusiasm for the elections, saying the commission was of the opinion that the interest of Nigeria and the electorate would be better served if the polls were spaced.
Jega added, “Is it possible to hold two elections – that of the National Assembly and presidential elections on the same day? We all know that the international community is interested in observing all the elections but they are more particularly interested in terms of the outcome of the presidential elections.
“As a commission and with the endorsement of the stakeholders that we have consulted, Nigeria is better served, in terms of bringing about free, fair and credible elections, if we separated these elections. That was the reason for this separation.
“Again, we apologise for all the problems but obviously, whatever we are doing here is in the larger interest of our country.”
The INEC chairman said the sacrifices by Nigerians were not lost on the commission.
Reacting to the new dates, the Acting National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Dr. Haliru Bello, said the party was left with no choice but to accept the decision in the overall interest of Nigerians.
He said, “Some of the parties (at the meeting) complained that their logos were missing from the ballot papers, some complained that the names of their supporters were omitted from the voter register, so we have to give them (INEC) time to sort things out.
“If they say they are not ready now, we are willing to wait for them to get ready because we want free, fair and credible elections.
“We believe Jega means well. We believe we have to give him enough time within which to rectify these problems within constitutional provisions.”
Also speaking on the issue, the National Chairman of the Congress for Progressive Change, Prince Tony Momoh, welcomed the decision to shift the polls.
Momoh said “We discovered that the logistics were just not there because logos of political parties are missing, many names are not there, shortages at polling stations, lots and lots of problems.
“And you can’t address them in 24 hours there is time enough to handle the issue and we believe that Jega can handle it.”
Before their national chairmen met with Jega, the parties, under the aegis of Interparty Advisory Council, had threatened to boycott the National Assembly elections if INEC insisted in conducting it on today.
Briefing journalists at the end of their emergency meeting in Abuja, IPAC Chairman, Chief Emmanuel Okereke, accused the commission of not consulting all stakeholders before choosing a new date for the postponed elections.
They said in a statement by Okereke and their Secretary, Alhaji Shittu Mohammed, that what happened on Saturday was a carefully designed method to rig the elections.
The parties also expressed worry over the security of the electoral materials that were already in the hands of INEC ad-hoc staff.
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How parties forced Jega to reschedule elections
How parties forced Jega to reschedule elections
NigerianEye
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Monday, April 04, 2011
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we can blem jega 4 elections not holding,but there is no smoke without fire.jega is doing his best 4 nigeria 2 have a credible election.
ReplyDeleteI am in support of Jega for the postponement of the election, because had it been that the election holds on that fist day, it might be rigged due to short of time of voting and accreditation. In fact Mr. Chairman, you are a wise man, you want the best for our country. Good luck!!!
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