Guardian
03 April 2011
By Reuben Abati
THE postponement of the 2011 National Assembly election is an open verdict on INEC’s complete unpreparedness for the assignment. The appropriate phrases in fact should be incompetence and institutional failure. So much hope was invested in the April 2 elections, the first in the series of elections in 2011, expectations were equally high, but it all turned out to be an anti-climax. The people wanted the election to happen, but by 12. 40 pm on D-Day, INEC Chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega, with voting not having started in some parts of the country, with complaints about the non-arrival of voting materials across the country, went on air to apologise to Nigerians and announce a postponement of the election till Monday, April 4. It is so shameful. Many Nigerians would remember this as the first time since 1999 that a major general election would be postponed nationwide due to INEC’s failure. This is not good for Attahiru Jega whose appointment as INEC chair had been praised widely as a good development; it is also a bad moment for INEC, and the ammunition may well have been prepared for subsequent instability, and complete lack of confidence in the 2011 electoral process.
No comments:
Post a Comment