INEC: To maintain quality of polls, we have shifted general elections to Feb 23, March 9

Due to what it referred to as logistics and operational reasons, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has shifted Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly elections till February 23.
The Governorship and House of Assembly elections will also now hold on March 9.
It was one of the decisions reached early today in a crunch talk which lasted hours between between INEC chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, and 12 national commissioners in Abuja.
Yakubu will brief journalists and observers at 2 p.m. today on the decision.
While the meeting was on, Rotimi Oyekanmi, the Chief Press Secretary (CPS) to INEC chairman, said: “I can confirm to you that the INEC Chairman and the 12 national commissioners are in the meeting. Decisions have been taken and you will be addressed later”.
Presidential and National Assembly elections are scheduled to take place throughout the country today, while governorship and state assembly elections will take place on March 2.
The elections are expected to hold at 119,973 polling units across the country while collation of results will take place in 8,809 Registration Areas or Wards, 774 Local Government Areas and 36 States and the FCT.
It will not be the first time that the commission would postpone a scheduled general election.
In 2015, the presidential election was shifted from February 14 to March 28 while the governorship and assembly elections scheduled for 28 February were shifted to April 11.
A statement from the electoral body, which announced the shift in the 2019 general elections, reads:
“The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) met on Friday, 15th February, 2019 and reviewed its preparations for the 2019 General Elections scheduled for Saturday, 16th February, 2019 and Saturday, 2nd March, 2019.
“Following a careful review of the implementation of its logistics and operational plan and the determination to conduct free, fair and credible elections, the Commission came to the conclusion that proceeding with the elections as scheduled is no longer feasible.
“Consequently, the Commission has decided to reschedule the Presidential and National Assembly Elections to Saturday, 23rd February 2019. “Furthermore, the Govemorship, State House of Assembly and Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Area Council Elections is rescheduled to Saturday 9th March, 2019. This will afford the Commission the opportunity to address identified challenges in order to maintain the quality of our elections.
“This was a difficult decision for the Commission to take, but necessary for the successful delivery of the elections and the consolidation of our democracy.
“The Commission will meet key stakeholders to update them on this development at 2pm on Saturday, l6th February, 2019 at the Abuja International Conference Centre”.