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Nigeria: Presidential elections postponed to March 28 due to security concerns
Nigeria has postponed the February 14 presidential and legislative elections by six weeks to March 28 due to security concerns, the chairman of the electoral commission told a press conference late on Saturday.
Thousands of voters would be disenfranchised if elections originally scheduled, went ahead while al-Qaeda-linked Boko Haram militant continue to commit mayhem that has left scores of people homeless.
Commission chairman Attahiru Jega told a news conference Saturday night that national security advisers and intelligence officers have said security forces need six weeks to conduct “a major operation” against Boko Haram and cannot also safeguard the elections. He said it would be “highly irresponsible” to ignore that advice and endanger the lives and security of electoral personnel and materials, voters and observers as well as the prospects for free, fair and credible elections.
“Many people will be very angry and annoyed” by the postponement, Jega said, but “I want to assure all Nigerians, no one is forcing us to make this decision, this is a very weighty decision.”
Officials in President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration had been calling for the postponement. Any delay was opposed by Jonathan’s chief rival, retired General Muhammadu Buhari and his opposition coalition – even though the opposition is expected to take the most votes in the volatile northeast.
Civil rights groups staged a small protest earlier Saturday against any postponement.
The postponement comes amid a major offensive against Boko Haram joined by Chad and Nigerian warplanes and ground troops that has driven the insurgents out of a dozen towns and villages in the past 10 days. Even stronger military strikes involving more neighboring countries are planned.
African Union officials were ending a three-day meeting Saturday in Yaounde, Cameroon’s capital, to finalize details of a 7,500-strong force from Nigeria and its neighbors Chad, Cameroon, Benin and Niger.
Nigeria’s home-grown extremist group has responded with attacks on one town in Cameroon and two in Niger this week. Officials said more than 100 civilians were killed and 500 wounded in Cameroon.
Opinion polls suggest that the vote is too close to call in what is likely to be the most tightly contested election since decades of military dictatorship ended in 1999.
Jonathan’s party has won every election since then, however, the failure of the military to curb the 5-year Islamic uprising, growing corruption and an economy hit by slumping oil prices have hurt the president of Africa’s biggest oil producer and most populous nation of about 170 million.
Source: Agencies