Nigeria's 2023 general elections which began with the now disputed presidential and national assembly elections and which were to move to the gubernatorial and state assembly elections, suffered a little setback when initially scheduled for March 11, 2023, were postponed to March 18 by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), citing logistic issues stemming from its lack of time to carry out the reconfiguration of the bimodal voter registration system (BVAS) used for the first leg of the elections.
Now, analysts are saying that, though the second leg of the elections was shifted by a week, the abrupt decision by the electoral umpire has far-reaching consequences that could result in economic losses and adverse cost implications for Africa’s largest economy.
The postponement followed a ruling by the Court of Appeal in Abuja, sitting as the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT), that granted INEC the right to reconfigure the BVAS, backed by the commission’s statement that it will need five working days to reconfigure BVAS used in the 176,974 polling units where voting will take place for the election