Feb. 16 (UPI) — Nigeria postponed presidential elections planned for Saturday by one week, citing a lack of proper materials at all voting locations.
The Independent National Electoral Commission announced the postponement 5 hours before Nigerians were expected to show up at the polls to cast their votes.
In Nigeria, voters must travel to their home states in order to vote, and most had already made that journey because travel is restricted on Election Day. Some may not be able to make that journey a second time.
The commission rescheduled the presidential and National Assembly elections for Feb. 23, and the gubernatorial and House of Assembly elections for March 9.
President Muhammadu Buhari’s All Progressives Congress Party called the postponement “a huge disappointment.”
“We do hope that INEC will remain neutral and impartial in this process as the rumor mill is agog with the suggestion that this postponement has been orchestrated in collusion with the main opposition, the PDP, that was never ready for this election,” the council said, referring to the opposing People’s Democratic Party.
Uche Secondus, chairman of the PDP, also criticized the move, calling it “dangerous to our democracy and unacceptable. He said it was an attempt by Buhari to cling to power amid a stiff challenge.
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