Presidential rivals trade blame after delay in election

YOLA, Nigeria — Nigeria’s top candidates on Saturday condemned the last-minute decision to delay the presidential election for a week until next Saturday, blaming each other but appealing to Africa’s largest democracy for calm.

The decision, announced a mere five hours before the polls were to open, is a costly one. Authorities now must decide what to do with already delivered voting materials in a tense atmosphere where some electoral facilities in recent days have been torched.

Electoral commission chairman Mahmood Yakubu told surprised election observers, diplomats and others that the delay had nothing to do with insecurity or political influence. He blamed “very trying circumstances” including bad weather affecting flights and fires at three commission offices that were an apparent “attempt to sabotage our preparations.”

If the vote had gone on as planned, polling units could not have opened at the same time nationwide. “This is very important to public perceptions of elections as free, fair and credible,” Yakubu said.

He hoped this would be the last postponement of the election, a sprawling affair with over 23,000 candidates for various posts and more than 84 million registered voters.

Some bitter voters in the capital, Abuja, and elsewhere who traveled home to cast their ballots said they could not afford to wait another seven days. They warned that election apathy could follow.

The party backing top opposition challenger Atiku Abubakar accused President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration of “instigating this postponement” with the aim of ensuring a low turnout.

“Their plan is to provoke the public, hoping for a negative reaction, and then use that as an excuse for further anti-democratic acts,” the party said. Its statement urged Nigerians to remain calm and turn out in greater numbers a week from now.

Buhari said he was “deeply disappointed” after the electoral commission had “given assurances, day after day and almost hour after hour that they are in complete readiness for the elections.” His statement also appealed for calm and stressed that his administration does not interfere in the commission’s work.

One ruling party campaign director in Delta state, Goodnews Agbi, said it was better to give the commission time to conduct a credible vote instead of rushing into one “that the whole world will criticize later.”

Rodney Muhumuza, Hilary Uguru and Cara Anna are Associated Press writers.

Luis Tato / AFP / Getty Images A woman checks her name against a voting list at a polling station in Yola before she learned the election had been postponed. The vote is now scheduled for next Saturday.