Presidential candidate of the People’s Trust (PT), Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, has written to the Independent National Electoral (INEC), demanding further extension of the general election.
INEC shifted the polls in the early hours of Saturday, February 16, citing logistics challenge and sabotage.
In the letter addressed to the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, Olawepo-Hashim said one week extension is “rather too short to conclude the stated enormous logistics requirement for the polls.”
He canvassed another extension, in view of the logistics burden on the contestants and the parties.
Olawepo-Hashim added that candidates and parties would now have to repeat logistics preparations that have hitherto been deployed to achieve the level of mobilisation at the February 16 scheduled election.
“It is my considered opinion that, in the haste to stick to a quickly announced date for the election, the Commission may not have paid adequate attention to the attendant voter apathy that may result if adequate confidence building measures are not implemented to win back ‘would-be’ voters for the next date of polling.
“As a result and because a potential voter’s apathy in some section of the country or all of the country may substantially affect the results of the election, a new date of election should be between three to four weeks from February 16; not one week from February 16, as previously announced.
“This is more so for self-funded candidates and political parties who do not have the possibilities or intentions of falling quickly on State treasuries to refinance another logistic deployment.”
He sent copies of the letter to representatives of the United Nations, observers and civil society groups, the diplomatic community and the media.