The Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, discloses that until 2:00am midnight today, the commission is still confident election will hold.
He said this during a stakeholders interactive session while giving details of the “logistics and operational problems” he earlier stated prompted the rescheduling of the 2019 general elections billed to start Saturday.
Different bodies, International and dosmestic observers has condemned in totality the postponement of the election.
The commission announced the shocking decision just hours before the opening of polls after repeatedly assuring Nigerians and international observers it was ready for the crucial elections.
He said the commission had been involved in large scale operations in preparations for the polls that “it is therefore not unexpected that such a tremendous national mobilisation of men and materials would encounter operational challenges.”
He listed the key challenges to be delays in delivering ballot papers and result sheets, occasioned in part by flight challenges due to bad weather.
He further disclosed that apart from the logistical challenges, there were attempts to sabotage the commission’s preparations, listing fire outbreaks at INEC facilities that destroyed smart card readers.
Mr Yakubu said despite those setbacks, the commission rapidly recovered by mopping up available card readers elsewhere.
He said if the polls had gone ahead, it would have meant some states starting well ahead of others with the implication of the elections being staggered.
“Faced with these challenges, we initially thought that we only required a maximum of 24 hours to resolve the logistics issues involved and complete our deployment for the election,” he said.
“This would mean shifting the elections to commence on Sunday 17th February, 2019. However, given the restriction of movement during elections, that could affect many voters who worship on Sunday. While the commission considering the following Monday, 19th February, 2019 as an option, our ICT department advised us that it would require 5-6 days to configure about 180,000 smart card readers earlier programmed to work only on election day, Saturday, 16th February 2019.”
Read his full speech below: