#INEC Election Postponement – A Ruse for Rigging By APC.
In early hours of Saturday 16th February, 2019 INEC clandestinely took every body unawares and announced the postponement of scheduled Presidential and National Assembly elections in the country scheduled for that day.
Questions for Prof Mahmood Yakubu -Chairman INEC to answer are:
1. Why the purported logistics problem of conducting the elections by Inec not reviewed 2 weeks before 16th February 2019?
2. All election funds were released to INEC by government quite on time. What then could be the unpreparedness of Inec if there is no deceptive hidden agenda to rig the elections?
3. But earlier INEC had given assurances day after day and hour after hour that they were in complete readiness for the elections and there would likely be no need for postponement of the elections.
4. It was expected that within four years, INEC should have made its operational plan foolproof without making the postponement a ruse for election manuplation and rigging.
5. Inec must guide against what happened in Venezuela to take place in Nigeria where the incumbent President Nicolas Maduro lost the election and refused to acknowledge defeat and hand over power to opposition leader, Juan Guaido. INEC should study and learn the consequences of the constitutional crises, economic/social upheaval and diplomatic recognition given the opposition in Venezuela as a warning to it.
6. In conclusion, INEC must ensure
(1) that before Saturday 23rd February 2019, all election materials are ready for delivery to all polling units in the country.
(2) INEC must announce all results at the polling centres AND not at the INEC state offices. This is to avoid a situation where between the polling centre and Inec state offices there will be vote manuplation, rigging or ballot box snatching.
(3) Where all electoral materials are not made available or some are not available, INEC should order suspension of voting at the polling unit.
(4) INEC should not allow completed voting materials to be conveyed to collation centres/INEC state offices in a private or party vehicles (5) INEC must be upright and transparent in announcing the results as they were cast by the electorates as free and fare.
National and International observers are watching.
Nigerian Senate Nigerian National Assembly INEC Nigeria European Union Election Observation Mission to Nigeria, 2019 Amnesty International Nigeria Amnesty International Amnesty International Africa African Union African Union ECOWAS United Nations Information Centre – UNIC, Lagos U.S. Secretary of State U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) United Nations Security Council Secretary-General of the United Nations Christiane Amanpour Focus on Africa Channels Television Africa Independent Television
