#AnambraDecides: Voting may be extended till Sunday if necessary, says INEC

 

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says voting in the Anambra governorship election may continue on Sunday if those currently on the queue are unable to cast their votes today.

 

Due to the malfunctioning of Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) in some polling units across the state, the commission had earlier extended the voting time in affected areas till 4pm.

 

But there are indications that the voting time may have to be further extended as some persons were still voting at past 7pm.

 

There were also reports that the commission has extended the voting time till Sunday.

 

But speaking on Saturday, Rotimi Oyekanmi, chief press secretary to the INEC chairman, said the commission has not officially extended voting till Sunday.

 

“At this point, election has not been officially extended till tomorrow. However, we are harvesting areas where voting will realistically no longer take place today, including places where substantial disruption occurred, to enable a recommencement of voting at another time, in line with extant laws as well as the commission’s regulations and guidelines,” he said.

 

“The implication of this is that voting time which was initially extended to 4pm may extend till tomorrow. If there are so many people on the queue in such a way that all of them can no longer vote today, then voting will resume tomorrow.

 

“If voting is able to end today, for instance at 7pm instead of 4pm, depending on the decision of the presiding officer, so be it. But if they (presiding officers) feel that at some point in time, they can no longer continue, maybe because it has gotten dark, they will stop at that point and then ask the remaining voters to come the following day to cast their ballot. And once the voting ends the following day, we’ll conclude the process.”