Amina Bala Zakari: says only poor distribution of PVCs can cause poll delay

Nigeria may delay its February 14 presidential elections if the number of voter I.D. cards the electoral commission (INEC) can distribute by February 8 is too low, an electoral commissioner told Reuters on Wednesday.

“Let’s see how the PVC (permanent voter card) distribution goes by February 8, then maybe,” Amina Bala Zakari, a commissioner for the Independent Nigerian Electoral Committee said on the sidelines of a news conference, when asked whether or not the date could be changed.

She made it clear that no decision had been taken.

PVCs

She later clarified her comment, saying INEC was only considering possible extension of the Feb. 8 deadline for the distribution of voter cards, not any potential postponement of the election itself.

“We are continuing with our distribution. We are watching the distribution. We may extend the distribution but nobody talked about extension of an election, a delay in the election,” she said.

INEC extended its deadline for voters to collect their cards to Feb. 8, but only 44 million out of 68.8 million have been distributed so far, with just 10 days to go before the poll.

Foreign powers are closely observing how elections will be held in Africa’s biggest economy and have voiced concerns over violence in the aftermath, as was the case after the 2011 election, when 800 people died

The press conference was eventually postponed, setting off speculations as to whether INEC may have been swayed by the orchestrated agitations for the poll postponement.

But a senior INEC official told THENEWS that the cancellation of the press conference had nothing to do with the timetable for the election.

“Press conference was cancelled because of overriding commitment”, he said, without spelling out the nature of the commitment.