Elections postponed until Monday!

By Terfa Tilley-Gyado.

The general elections for the National Assembly have been sensationally postponed across all the states in the Federation until Monday 4th April.

In a statement by the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) chairman, Attahiru Jega, an "unprecedented late arrival of result sheets" was the reason for the postponement.

Mr. Jega was quick to apologise to the millions of voters who had turned out as early as 6am and said he "deeply regrets" the shift in date.

He blamed unspecified vendors for the late arrival of the material which only reached Abuja at 9am on Saturday. According to Mr. Jega, the vendors equally blamed the situation in Japan for compelling them to divert the supply of result sheets.

The INEC chairman said that the lack of ballot papers was not really the issue but that it was the complete absence of results sheets in the 36 states that forced the postponement.

He could not comment on whether Monday 4th April would now be a public holiday but said that he expected the authorities would make an announcement imminently. 

Mr. Jega expressed his confidence that there would be no further delays to the process because all electoral material had now arrived in the country.

Poor start

The elections had not started well as thousands of polling booths reported the late arrival of electoral material and INEC officials.

In Plateau, the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Habu Hinna Zarma, revealed that almost 2 and a half million ballot papers failed to arrive in the state.

In Gombe, an administrative error saw gubernatorial electoral material sent to the state instead of National Assembly ballot papers.

Many polling booths in Abuja only received ballot papers for the House of Assemble and not for the Senate.