For the first time since 2011, Nigeria’s electoral body, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) held a presidential election without postponement.
In fact, the unprecedented feat achieved by the electoral umpire since 2011 was deservingly mentioned by INEC chief, Mahmood Yakubu who briefed reporters on Saturday from the West African country’s political capital city of Abuja amid the February 25 presidential and National Assembly polls.
“As Nigerians are aware, this is the first time since 2011 that a general election has not been postponed after it was scheduled,” the delighted professor noted commendingly, adding that “it is part of the commission’s determination to do what is right”.
Many Nigerians had doubted the electoral chief when he said on Friday, a few hours into the polls that the February 25 polls and the March 11 Governorship and State Assemblies’ elections will hold as planned, ruling out any postponement which had consistently characterised Nigeria’s general elections since 2011.
On Saturday, Accreditation and voting commenced around 08:30 am at most of the 176,606 polling units scattered across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory that make up Nigeria as 87.2 million voters with Permanent Voter Cards go to the polls to elect a new president and members of the country’s National Assembly.
Four frontline candidates in the race to become the next President of Africa’s most populous country have already cast their votes at their respective polling units in parts of Nigeria.
Though 18 candidates are in the race, pollsters and analysts have described the contest as a four-horse race between Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP).
One of the uniqueness of this year’s election is the deployment of the Bimodal Voter Registration Systems (BVAS), the technological system stipulated in the Electoral Act of 2022 which allows the accreditation of voters through biometrics capturing, and uploading of results amongst others
