Nigeria: March 11 Polls May Not Hold, Except... - Election Observers

7 March 2023

An election observer group, Coalition of Civil Societies for Good Governance, yesterday, warned that the governorship and state Houses of Assembly elections, scheduled for Saturday, may not hold, except the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, vacated the order of the election petition tribunal restricting the commission from tempering with the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, machines.

The Presidential candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and the Labour Party had approached the Election Petition Tribunal to seek an order restraining INEC from tempering with the BVAS machines pending the inspection of the machines and other documents used for the presidential election.

Addressing newsmen in Osogbo, the Coordinator of the coalition, Olufemi Lawson said unless INEC vacates the order before the tribunal, it will be difficult for the commission to reconfigure the BVAS machines for the polls scheduled for Saturday.

He said: "The present situation is such that needs serious attention from both the commission and other stakeholders, particularly, politicians. If INEC did not vacate the order of the tribunal granted PDP and Labour Party, it would not be able to reconfigure BVAS machines for Saturday Governorship and Houses of Assembly election. It is either INEC postpone the poll, proceed without BVAS or seek legal option to vacate the order."

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