The two main political parties in the 2019 general elections have engaged in a shouting match over the decision of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to postpone the elections barely a few hours to polls opening on Saturday. Buhari Campaign condemns the postponement of elections
President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressive Congress (APC) and his Campaign Organization said the postponement of the election by INEC was “a huge disappointment” and accused the electoral umpire of conniving with the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to scupper the election.
“We condemn and deprecate this tardiness of the electoral umpire in the strongest terms possible,” the Director of Media of the Buhari campaign, Festus Keyamo, said in a statement on Saturday. Keyamo accused the electoral watchdog of conniving with the opposition PDP, saying: “the rumor mill is agog with the suggestion that this postponement has been orchestrated in collusion with the main opposition.”
But the opposition PDP also accused the ruling party of influencing INEC’s decision, saying the APC deliberately orchestrated the postponement in order to perfect its plan to rig the elections. APC, the PDP said, “have been trying all options including but not limited to burning down INEC offices in some states and destroying of electoral materials to create artificial problems upon which to stand for their dubious act.”
“With several of their rigging options failing, they have to force INEC to agree to a shift in the election or a staggered election with flimsy excuses pre-manufactured for the purpose,” PDP’s national chairman spokesman Ike Abonyi said in a statement on Saturday.
The war of words came a few hours after INEC chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, announced the postponement at a press briefing on in the early hours of Saturday morning held at the commission’s headquarters in Abuja. “Following a careful review of the implementation of its logistics and operational plan, and the determination to conduct free, fair, and credible elections, the commission came to the conclusion that proceeding with the elections as scheduled is no longer feasible.” Yakubu said the Presidential and National Assembly elections, initially scheduled for Saturday, Feb 16, will now hold on Feb 23, while the governorship and state houses of assembly elections will take place on March 9.
The press briefing followed a crucial meeting of the INEC boss with top officials of the commission which started late on Friday night. “This was a difficult decision for the Commission to take, but necessary for the successful delivery of the elections and the consolidation of our democracy,” Yakubu said. “The Commission will meet key stakeholders to update them on this development at 2 p.m. on Saturday, 16th February 2019 at the Abuja International Conference Centre,” he added.
Polling centers were initially meant to open Saturday at 8 a.m., with more than 84 million registered voters across 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The postponement may heighten tensions in what has been a tight race between incumbent President Buhari, and his main challenger from the PDP, Atiku Abubakar.
It will not be the first time that the Commission would postpone a scheduled general election. In 2015, the presidential election was shifted from February 14 to March 28th, 2015; while the governorship and assembly elections scheduled for 28 February were shifted to 11 April. The elections were postponed because of security issues. In the previous election cycle in 2011, the National Assembly elections were postponed on the day the election was to be held due to logistics failure.
As recriminations and counter-recriminations continued to trail INEC’s decision, another statement from PDP National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, said the shoddy arrangement for the election by INEC, was a deliberate pre-determined agenda of President Buhari to cling on to power even when it’s obvious to him that Nigerians want him out.
Secondus said that the postponement which he alleged was part of a grand design by the APC to thwart the will of Nigerians at all cost clearly exposes INEC as a failure and called on INEC Chairman, Prof Yakubu to resign immediately. The PDP leader warned that the party will not accept anything short of a well-organized electoral process devoid of manipulation, harassment and intimidation of voters and the opposition particularly members of the PDP.
“Having failed in all their nefarious options to enable them cling on to power, the APC and INEC came up with the idea of shifting election; an action that is dangerous to our democracy and unacceptable.” The National Chairman said the APC in connivance with the INEC have been trying all options including but not limited to burning down INEC offices in some states and destroying of electoral materials to create artificial problems upon which to stand for their dubious act.
According to a second statement signed by Abonyi, Secondus said that the PDP party is privy to all the pressures from the APC and the federal government to arm twist the INEC, to dance to their new strategy after their earlier ones failed. “With several of their rigging options failing, they have to force INEC to agree to a shift in the election or a staggered election with flimsy excuses pre-manufactured for the purpose. For the avoidance of doubt the PDP sees this action as wicked and we are also aware of other dubious designs like the deployment of hooded security operatives who would be ruthless on the people ostensibly to scare them away.”
He said by the action of the President, he has further demonstrated his insensitivity adding that it has brought the huge cost for Nigerians including those who came home from abroad and had all mobilized to their various constituencies. The PDP National Chairman recalled that the PDP had earlier alerted Nigerians that the APC was coming up with lined up rigging strategies including burning down of INEC offices and engineering crisis in PDP strong hold areas to scare away the people.
Secondus said that the wicked killing of over 60 persons mostly women and children in Southern Kaduna on the eve of election is a ploy by the APC to frighten the people away from voting knowing too well that they were not going to record any vote from the area. “Recall that the Governor of Kaduna state, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai had earlier threatened international election observers of going to their country in body bags and with the fatal violence in the state on the eve of election, it’s clear what the motives are, to frighten the observers from the state so that he can carry out his nefarious acts.”
Prince Secondus also regretted that President Buhari who made a promise at the signing of peace accord that the election will be conducted in a fair and transparent atmosphere has gone ahead in breach of the peace agreements to send soldiers and other security agencies to arrest, harass and intimidate opponents in Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Kwara, Kano, Kaduna states.
INEC Chairman, Prof Yakubu announces election postponement
