Nigeria postpones election of state governors

Nigeria’s electoral commission has postponed elections for state governors and local assemblies by one week, following a court decision over machines used in tallying votes.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec) said the move will allow more time for the so-called BVAS machines to be reconfigured and deployed for the upcoming vote.

The polls which had been scheduled to take place on Saturday will now be held on 18 March.

A court earlier on Wednesday had rejected an opposition demand to halt the reconfiguring of BVAS so their teams could check for forensic evidence of ballot rigging claims.

But Inec said the legal challenge had held up preparations and the machines would not be ready in time.

The opposition has disputed last month’s election victory by President-elect Bolu Tinubu.

Inec introduced BVAS for the first time as part of new technologies heavily used in this year elections in a bid to improve transparency.

But observer groups and opposition parties said huge delays in voting and failures in the system when uploading tallies allowed for ballot disparities during presidential election.