INEC May Postpone General Elections

Voting in progress

Reports just reaching us reveal that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) may postpone the February 14 and 28 general elections. 

Voting in progress

A commissioner for the Independent Nigerian Electoral Committee, Amina Zachary, who made the revelation to Reuters on Wednesday, said the electoral umpire would postpone the polls if the number of voter’s cards distributed before February 8 is too low.
“Let’s see how the PVC (permanent voter card) distribution goes by Feb 8, then maybe,” Zachary said.
When the commissioner was asked if the elections schedule could be changed, she said “no decision has been taken yet.”
Meanwhile, INEC extended its deadline for registered voters to collect their Permanent Voters Card (PVCs) cards to February 8, as it was gathered that only 44 million out of 68.8 million cards have so far been distributed, with barely 10 days to the elections.
Although there is no official statement from the INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, there has been indication that the chairman’s perceived  stance on credibility is currently making some political giants plot his removal.
It would be recalled that the call for the postponement of the general polls was first made by the National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, which quickly stir up responses from all nook and cranny of the country, with some concerned group like the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC)  warning government against such decision, saying that it is not the solution to the nation’s insecurity.
But, a prominent figure and a former governor of old Kaduna State, Alhaji Abdulkadir Balarabe Musa, however joined his voice to that of those calling on the INEC to shift the polls.
Also, some youths from Abuja suburb numbering about 100 reportedly stormed INEC’s head office office on Monday February 2, demanding the postponement of the general elections.

Reacting also to the call for elections postponement, the major opposition party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) claimed that President Goodluck Jonathan and his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are scared of the outcome of the presidential election, hence their efforts to postpone the polls in its entirety.