Jega confirms rescheduling of general elections

The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Attahiru Jega, has confirmed the postponement of the 2015 general election.

The elections will now take place on March 28 and April 11.

While the presidential and National Assembly elections will take place on March 28, those of the governorship and the state House of Assembly will be held on April 11.

The elections were initially scheduled for February 14 and 28 respectively.

Reading from a prepared text, Jega said the Commission’s position was reached after carefully weighing all options.

He said the conduct of elections in a country like Nigeria involves taking into consideration the opinions of major stakeholders such as political parties, candidates and the civil societies.

He said also that to guarantee the successful conduct of elections, there are several factors that must be taken into consideration.

He said while there are those within the control of INEC, there are others outside the purview of the Commission.

Jega said while INEC takes responsibility for the actual conduct of the elections, other critical factors such as security are not under its control.

He said when he was invited on Thursday to brief the National Council of States on the state of preparedness of INEC, he gave detailed account of what the Commission had been doing in readiness for the election.

He said the summary was that for matters under the control of INEC, the Commission was substantially ready despite the challenges with some of them, especially the collection of the Permanent Voter Cards.

He said INEC had been given all it requires to do this successfully.

He said so far, 45,829,808 PVCs had been distributed, amounting to over 56 per cent of the cards sent to the states.

In terms of distribution of electoral materials, Jega said INEC was at comfortable level.

He said the level of preparedness was sufficient to conduct free, fair and credible elections.

He said the processes have been better refined and more robust than that of 2011, which was hailed as substantially free and fair.

He added: “But there are other variables outside the control of INEC.

“One is the security.

“INEC has good relationship with all security agencies.”

Jega said it thus became pertinent for the Commission to consider the security advisory sent to it by security agencies.

He said it lies on the security services to provide security for the process, adding: “Where the security services strongly advises otherwise, it will be unconscionable to do otherwise.”

Jega said just on Wednesday, the National Security Adviser, retired Colonel Sambo Dasuki, wrote to INEC on the security situation in Adamawa, Gombe, Yobe and Borno States as regards the election.

He said the advisory was reinforced at the National Council of State meeting by all the service chiefs.

The service chiefs, according to him, requested for six weeks to contain the activities of the insurgents in the North East.

He said the service chiefs told the NCS that they needed the time to concentrate on the theatre of war during the period and will, as such, not have the time for the elections.

Following this, Jega said the Commission had wide ranging consultations.

He said two pertinent questions came up during the series of consultations.

Should INEC proceed with the conduct of the election and if so, what alternative arrangements are available?

And the second question was should INEC take the advice and adjust the timetable within the framework of the law?

Jega said INEC has decided to take the advice, with the consciousness that Section 26 subsection 1 of the Electoral Law makes room for such provision for the postponement of the elections.

He said the Commission was very conscious of the safety of the men and women that will conduct the elections, especially the over 600,000 National Youth Service Corps members that will be deployed as adhoc staff.

He also said the materials for the election must also be guarded jealousy.

He added: “If security cannot be guaranteed, then no need going ahead.”

Jega added that the new dates of March 28 and April 11, 2015 fall within the constitutional framework for the elections.