INEC Chairman, Yakubu Mahmood who addressed a  World Press Conference today, gave an extensive reason why the electoral commission postponed the 2019 elections. 

The INEC Chairman who disclosed that key challenges centered on delays in delivering ballot papers and result sheets, occasioned in part by flight challenges due to bad weather, added that apart from the logistical challenges, there were attempts to sabotage the commission’s preparations, listing fire outbreaks at INEC facilities that destroyed smart card readers and voter cars. The fire at Anambra was the most serious of all, he said.

Yakubu Mahmood who disclosed that the commission pushed back the challenges by getting available card readers elsewhere, stated that if the polls had gone ahead, it would have meant some states starting well ahead of others with the implication of the elections being staggered.

“Faced with these challenges, we initially thought that we only required a maximum of 24 hours to resolve the logistics issues involved and complete our deployment for the election,” he said. “This would mean shifting the elections to commence on Sunday 17th February, 2019. However, given the restriction of movement during elections, that could affect many voters who worship on Sunday. While the commission considering the following Monday, 19th February, 2019 as an option, our ICT department advised us that it would require 5-6 days to configure about 180,000 smart card readers earlier programmed to work only on election day, Saturday, 16th February 2019" he said. 

Here is the official statement shared below;

https://unclesuru.com/2019/02/16/why-we-postponed-2019-elections-inec-chairman-speaks-at-world-press-conference/


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