One set of "whys"
While the inevitable rumors of conspiracies and fraud circulate, there are official and mainstream media explanations for the delays in Nigerian elections. The first report comes from Leadership in Abuja. The second is from All Africa.Why INEC Rescheduled Elections
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) yesterday bowed to pressures from stakeholders, principally political parties to reschedule the 2011 general elections…
Rising from a close-door meeting with Nigeria's political parties Sunday evening, INEC chairman Professor Attahiru Jega announced a sweeping change in all the election dates. According to him, rescheduling of the National Assembly elections would have implication for the schedule of all the other elections.
National Assembly elections will now hold on Saturday, April 9, presidential on Saturday, April 16, while gubernatorial and the state assembly elections will hold on Tuesday, April 26…
Parties roundly embraced the new election dates.
National chairman, Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) Tony Momoh, said: "The logo of some political parties are missing, many names are not there (on the ballot papers), there are shortages at polling stations and lots and lots of problems and these cannot be addressed within 24 hours. There is enough time now to make the necessary adjustments and we believe that Jega can handle the issue."…
The acting national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Haliru Bello, said: "If they (INEC) say they are not ready now, we are willing to wait for them to get ready because we want free and credible elections."…
Election Delay Shock Elicits Range of Reactions
As Nigeria's attempt to hold parliamentary elections—the first round of a three-stage vote set for this month in Africa's most populous nation—floundered this weekend, there was no shortage of opinions from would-be voters across the country as they reacted to vote…
Many Nigerians were shocked when the respected chairman of the commission, Professor Attahiru Jega, announced on live television that he was postponing the National Assembly elections after they were already under way, particularly because Jega had declared on Friday, on the eve of the vote, that his commission was completely ready.
"I never in my wildest dreams imagined a postponement," said Jude Ado of the Open Society Institute in Abuja… Ado noted that there are several schools of "thought and legend" about what went wrong within the commission, but one gradually emerging theory is that the seemingly chaotic series of events over the weekend were a "calculated plan" to oust Chairman Jega, whose sheer integrity poses a threat to Nigeria's established political order, which is maintained by the elite no matter the human or economic cost to everyday, largely impoverished citizens…
Many Nigerians seem willing to give the commission another chance, but others point their finger squarely at the chairman for not being better informed about a critical element of the voting process—the delivery of materials. "Jega had all the time to prepare for this election, this is total ignorant on his part," said a Nigerian who gave the name "Endurance" on a comments section of a local newspaper article…
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Labels: elections, Nigeria, politics
posted by Ken Wedding @ 5:47 AM
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