INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Akwa Ibom, Mike Igini has said political parties are responsible for the postponement of the general elections on Saturday.
Igini, in a chat on Channels Television, attributed the failures of political parties to stick to INEC’s timetables, as well as the numerous petitions against the commission with regards to primaries, as a factor in the postponement of the elections originally scheduled for February 16.
“Today within this period we are talking about, we have had a total of 640 cases joining INEC, and a total of 14 court orders either asking INEC to add or remove a name,” Igini stated.
The INEC REC also observed that the commission had to contend with challenges such as the issue of exclusion from the ballot by political parties and other litigations which were of a lot distractions to the electoral body.
He added that in spite of the fact that the commission issued a timetable and detailed schedule of electoral activities, political parties failed to stick to the deadlines, hence mounting more pressure on the electoral umpire.
He concluded that there was no way the commission could have proceeded with the exercise, as it may lead to a situation where many Nigerians were disenfranchised.
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