National Assembly elections scheduled to take place today were abruptly cancelled by INEC, the Nigerian national election committee. Voting has been rescheduled to Monday, which means schools and offices will probably be closed again.
There has been a lot of finger pointing about the cause of the delay--a shortage of materials, items which were coming from outside the country were delayed, planes diverted to Japan, unable to clear customs--take your pick. A number of scenarios were presented as news. The Director of INEC blamed the delay on a vendor who was to deliver certification documents on Thursday but failed to do so. INEC officials were not at polling place on time and the citizenry, eager to vote their choice were lined up since 5am this morning. Some officials were under equipped others did not show up at all. It was early this afternoon that the decision to reschedule was announced.
Political leaders are pleading for calm among the electorate, but people are understandably upset. I ran into an official election observer from the U.S. who verified the one piece of documentation contracted in country delayed the entire process. It's a troubling commentary for the richest country on the continent to be plagued by such deep inefficiency.
I said I was looking forward to Monday. Looks like it will be a long weekend for me!
No comments:
Post a Comment