ELECTIONS NOW TO BE HELD ON FEB 21 2019 FOR THE PRESIDENCY AND NATIONAL ASSEMBLY AND MARCH 9 FOR THE STATE’S AND. LOCAL GOVERNMENTS
Nigeria’s Independent Electoral Commission (I.N.E.C) and it’s commissioners met just a few hours before the scheduled February 16 2019 elections and decided to cancel it for mostly “unspecified” challenges that the commission claims it faces. Those challenges it says would prevent it from delivering on it’s promise of free and fair elections.
Here’s an official tweet and a live video from INEC,
Live update: Press briefing by the Hon. Chairman INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu on #NigeriaDecides2019 elections https://t.co/S9ZTPbrBuK
— INEC Nigeria (@inecnigeria) February 16, 2019
The address was made by its chairman, Mahmood Yakubu at a press conference held just hours before the elections. He stated that the rescheduling would afford the commission “the opportunity to address identified challenges in order to maintain the quality of our elections”.
The rescheduling of the elections has had very mixed reviews as both major parties, PDP and APC trade barbs with each other on allegations that INEC is working for one or the other. Most average Nigerian people see the rescheduling as an opportunity by APC and the ruling cabal to further strengthen tbeir elections rigging strategies. Some believe that the APC and President Buhari just simply eventually got to learn that they would loose woefully if the elections were to be held as earlier scheduled and so just needed to buy more time to perfect their trickery.
Here’s an official INEC press release on the issue,
