Local elections postponed again

Local elections scheduled for 10 August in Nigeria have been postponed indefinitely to allow for further preparations, President Olusegun Obasanjo said on Saturday during a radio phone-in programme.

He said the decision had been made by the country’s 36 state governors, who are responsible for organising the elections. "By consensus they have decided that August 10 is unrealistic," he said. "It is not my decision, it is their decision."

This is the second time the elections - originally scheduled for 18 May - have been postponed. The first postponement followed a court ruling in April that they could not be held without a review of the voters’ register. That ruling was in response to a suit filed by 10 youths who said they would be disenfranchised if the polls used the old register prepared for elections in 1999, when they were under the voting age of 18 years.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has been unable to start producing a new voters’ register. It has blamed a delay in the release of funds by the federal government.

Three newly registered political parties had threatened to challenge the validity of the polls if they were held less than 60 days after the updating of the voters’ register as provided by the constitution.

The tenure of Nigeria's 774 local government councils ended in May. The National Assembly tried to extend their stay in office by one year through a new electoral law but this was nullified by the Supreme Court, which ruled it unconstitutional.