Nigerians react with anger and confusion just after presidential elections postponed – Tek Portal

Polls had been established to open up at 8 a.m. community time (2 a.m. ET) Saturday. As a substitute, the vote will choose place in yet another week, on February 23, authorities explained, citing logistical difficulties.
The hold off arrived as a shock, in particular because the chairman of Nigeria’s Independent Countrywide Electoral Commission had said in an interview earlier this thirty day period he could not “foresee any chance postponement.”
“We began this a extended time back and have long gone in advance with our preparations. INEC is not even considering the postponement of the election,” Mahmood Yakubu explained, employing the acronym for the fee.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari mentioned in a assertion from his hometown of Daura, exactly where he had traveled to vote, that he was “deeply unhappy.”
“INEC them selves have provided assurances, working day just after day and practically hour following hour that they are in total readiness for the elections,” Buhari stated. “We and all our citizens considered them.”
The fallout to the election delay has been swift, with indignant Nigerians taking to social media.
“Do they take us as jokes, some folks canceled their weddings, get-togethers, some even flew in just for election, goodness gracious, who did we offend in this country?” one particular Nigerian tweeted as he aired his frustrations more than the postponement.
A number of registered voters experienced set out on foot to polling stations Saturday morning as news of the election’s postponement slowly but surely trickled out. Some had also slept at polling booths to conquer the crowd.
Some colleges ended up closed for a week for safety causes ahead of the elections, though compact businesses ended up shut down just after a 6 a.m.-to-6 p.m. curfew was imposed to limit motion on Election Day.
There was significant website traffic in Lagos, the country’s economic money, on Friday night as several Nigerians stocked up on foods objects ahead of the curfew on car or truck actions went into result. Most of the food stuff and other necessary supplies experienced operate out at a common grocery store that CNN staff visited Friday.
Many small business homeowners lamented they would be pressured to close once again on February 23, dropping crucial income three Saturdays in a row, as gubernatorial elections are also scheduled just after the presidential elections.
With higher ranges of unemployment and poverty, Nigeria has been rated by the Planet Poverty Clock as the place with the premier variety of folks living in excessive poverty, an believed 91 million.

Countless numbers of young Nigerians doing the job as momentary staff members for the electoral commission surface to have borne the brunt of Saturday’s postponement.
They are customers of the National Youth Company Corps, a a person-year required method for university graduates in Nigeria.
The corpers, as they are recognised, give crucial companies at polling units all through Nigeria’s elections, where 84 million folks are registered to vote, while turnout is usually considerably lower.
Numerous of the youths mentioned they slept in open up fields with no security or blankets in unsafe and mosquito-infested spots.
“We slept in open up industry of principal faculties with no safety or nearly anything shut to a respectable shelter. Yet, No apologies,” Opeyemi Adeleke, a corps member in Lagos, wrote on Twitter.
Femi Akinbiyi, a spokesman for the electoral commission, told CNN that ideas experienced been designed for accommodations and meals for its short-term staff members, but he could not validate if these experienced been implemented.
“If it is genuine, we would do the job on it to make it better before the subsequent election,” Akinbiyi said after reviews of staffers sleeping in open up fields with no foodstuff.
CNN was not straight away capable to get to a National Youth Service Corps representative for comment.

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