INEC Under Pressure From 6 Presidential Candidates

With less than 2 weeks to the presidential elections, 6 presidential candidates and 16 political parties are urging the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to postpone the February 14 polls.


The reason they are calling for the postponement of the elections is so that the electorate can collect their Permanent Voters Card (PVCs) and also, the insurgency in the North-East, Vanguard reports.
Many Nigerians have been unable to collect their PVCs which gives them access to vote.

Although they do not have much to lose in the process, they have threatened to boycott the elections if INEC fails to grant their wishes.

The parties involved are the United Democratic Party (UDP), Citizen Peoples Party (CPP), Peoples Party of Nigeria (PPN), Action Alliance (AA), Peoples Democratic Congress (PDC), Allied Party of Nigeria (ACPN), Labour Party (LP), Mega Progressive People’s Party (MPPP), United Party of Nigeria (UPN), Alliance for Democracy (AD), African Democratic Congress (ADC), Advanced Congress of Democrats (ACD), Democratic Peoples Party (DPP), New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP), Peoples Party of Nigeria (PPN) and Independent Democrat (ID).
Addressing newsmen in Abuja yesterday, Godson Okoye, the flag bearer of the United Democratic Party, UDP, who spoke on behalf of the other presidential candidates and political parties said the elections should be postponed to either March or April this year.

According to Okoye there was a need to postpone the elections considering the security situation in the country, especially in Yobe and Borno states and the inability of many Nigerians to collect their PVCs.

Godson Okoye

Okoye said: “We the concerned leaders of political parties participating in the 2015 general elections, have observed some dangerous trends which if not checked, may negatively and adversely affect our democracy.

“The security situation in the country continues to deteriorate going by the reports from our colleagues and supporters across the country and mass movement of Nigerians. The level of violence and use of foul language by some notable politicians in the country, in clear breach of the accord signed by almost all the political party leaders at Sheraton Hotel Abuja, continues to rise exponentially.”

He explained that many of the Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, who registered in their communities before their displacement by the insurgents but now taking refuge in various parts of the country, would be disenfranchised if adequate arrangements are not made to resettle them in their various communities where they will have the opportunity to exercise their franchise.

Okoye stated that postponing the elections would enable the electorate get their PVCs and also reduce violence.

He said a shift in the 2015 elections would not have any negative effect on the hand-over date of May 29, which according to him is sacrosanct.

He threatened that should INEC go ahead to conduct the elections as scheduled, they would boycott the exercise.


INEC had on Sunday extended the period for the collection of the PVCs to February 8, 2015.
However, some youths from Abuja suburb numbering about 100 had reportedly stormed INEC’s office on Monday, February 2, demanding the postponement of the general elections.

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