Election 2023: INEC gives reason for postponing Governorship election

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has provided justifications for the postponement of the governorship election by one week.

The exercise will now be held on March 18 instead of this Saturday, as originally planned.

Festus Okoye, National Commissioner and Chairperson of the Information and Voter Education Committee, provided confirmation of this in a statement on Wednesday evening.

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Okoye claimed that the commission needed more time to reconfigure the BVAS for the February 25, 2023, presidential election.

“For instance, the BVAS can only be activated on the specific date and time of an election.

“Having been used for the Presidential and National Assembly elections on 25th February 2023, it is necessary to reconfigure the BVAS for activation on the date of the governorship and State Assembly elections,” the statement read in part.

The decision was confirmed after Court of Appeal in Abuja yesterday approved the application by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to reconfigure the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) used for the February 25 presidential election. The development was to enable the commission to conduct the governorship and state Assembly elections.

The Federal High Court in Lagos, on Wednesday, also ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission to directly and electronically upload from the polling units to the IReV the results of the forthcoming, governorship and state House of Assembly elections.