The 2019 general elections will hold as scheduled, INEC assures

The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, has weighed in to alley fears of a possible postponement of any of the elections as a result of court orders.

Prof Yakubu made the position known Thursday in Abuja at a national stakeholders’ forum organised by the commission for the 2019 general elections.

He said that the commission had been receiving court orders in which some had been conflicting or contradicting.

He said that the commission had been operating on the principle of latest order.

“If two courts make a pronouncement on a matter, we go by the latest in time.

“In the case of one of the judgments, the two judgements came on the same day; the commission has to take a decision.

“My assurance to stakeholders and Nigerians is that INEC will always obey court order.

“The next question we are going to ask is that what if the court order comes close to election, will INEC postpone elections?

“No. INEC does not intend to postpone any election.

“We will operate based on the order that we received but the commission has also made contingency plan in case some of the orders come close to the elections.

“We should be able to recover and conduct elections as scheduled.”

Yakubu said that party congresses and primaries for the 2019 general elections had been the most contentious since the return to democracy in 1999 as court 640 cases had arisen from them.

INEC has been dragged to court 640 times on the conduct of party primaries.

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Source: NAN