Nigeria counts cost of postponed elections

LAGOS, Nigeria - Nigerians on Sunday counted the cost of the last-minute postponement of presidential elections, with predictions the delay could lose the country billions of dollars.

The streets of Lagos, the country's sprawling commercial hub of more than 20 million people, were empty following disappointment and anger at the last-minute decision.

About 84 million people were registered to vote for a new president and parliament on Saturday until the Independent National Electoral Commission announced a one-week delay.

The two main candidates - President Muhammadu Buhari and Atiku Abubakar - both called for calm, as INEC prepared to address logistical issues that hampered their preparations.

Despite the billions of dollars earned in oil revenue, most Nigerians live in poverty and traveling to their hometowns and villages to vote is a financial sacrifice for many.

Most businesses shut down on Friday to allow employees to leave before movement restrictions were imposed throughout Saturday. Airports and land borders were also closed.

Analysts predicted that fewer people would make the trip again next week, which would make turnout low.

The director-general of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Muda Yusuf, estimated financial losses from the election delay at about $1.5 billion.

"The cost to the economy of the postponement of the election is horrendous," he was quoted as saying in The Sunday Vanguard newspaper.

"The economy was on partial shutdown the day before (Friday), and total shutdown on Saturday for the elections," he added.

INEC announced the delay at 2:45 am local time on Saturday, just over five hours before the nearly 120,000 polling units were due open across the country.

INEC Chairman Mahmood Yakubu said a combination of factors, including last-minute legal challenges to candidacies, bad weather and sabotage hampered the distribution of election materials.

Ballot boxes and other items, including voter card readers, were destroyed in three fires at three separate INEC offices in central and southeastern states in the last two weeks.

He explained that organizing elections in Africa's most populous nation of about 190 million people was an "enormous undertaking" and "operational challenges" were expected.

The election body took "full responsibility", he said, but denied there had been any political interference.

Agence France-presse

(China Daily 02/19/2019 page11)