The Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room has said the postponement of the General Elections by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has cast a doubt on the credibility and competence of the electoral body in conducting free, fair and credible exercise.
Equally, it said the postponement has imposed unforeseen financial and logistics burden on political parties, candidates, businesses and Nigerians in general.
Clement Nwankwo, Executive Director, Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC) and Convener, Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room, stated this at a press conference in Abuja on Saturday while reacting to the postponement of the general election by the electoral body.
Nwankwo also condemned the plight of corps members who were supposed to serve as adhoc staff but were left sleeping in open fields without security.
He also wondered why the commission gave false hope to Nigerians that it was ready to conduct the exercise.
The development, according to him, has created needless tension and confusion in the country.
He said: “INEC has a duty to be honest and transparent with Nigerians in the conduct of elections. That duty of honesty has been fundamentally breached.
“The Situation Room calls on INEC to immediately provide clear explanation to Nigerians and stakeholders on what went wrong and steps to be taken to ensure that this does not happen again. INEC must inform Nigerians what steps it is taking to hold persons responsible for this fiasco to account. INEC has an onerous task of reassuring Nigerians in the light of these unfortunate events especially with respect to transparency of polls, collation and enforcement of rules.
“The Commission needs to explain to Nigerians how they are able to address the extra financial and logistics burden that this has occasioned. Also the management and integrity of already distributed materials is key. INEC will need to explain how it will do this”.
He also called on stakeholders to refrain from unguarded statements so as not to heat up the polity, even as he urged eligible voters not to be deterred but to come out and cast their votes on the rescheduled dates.
In the early hours of Saturday, INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, announced the shift in the date of the Presidential and National Assembly elections from February 16 to 23 as well as the governorship and state assembly elections from March 2 to 9 due to logistics reasons.
BusinessDay reports that this is the third consecutive time that the nation’s General Elections would be postponed.
In 2011, then INEC Chairman, Attahiru Jega, a professor, announced the postponement of the polls due to logistics challenges.
Similarly, in 2015, the Jega-led INEC also postponed the general elections for security reasons.
