DAKAR // Nigeria’s electoral commission will postpone upcoming presidential and legislative elections for six weeks to give a new multinational force time to secure northeastern areas under control by Boko Haram, an official said on Saturday.
Millions could be disenfranchised if voting went ahead on February 14, as previously planned, while Boko Haram militants hold a large swath of the north-east and commit mayhem that has driven 1.5 million people from their homes.
An official, who is knowledgeable of discussions surrounding the decision, said the Independent National Electoral Commission would announce the postponement later on Saturday.
Civil rights groups staged a small protest on Saturday against any proposed delay. Police prevented demonstrators from entering the commission’s headquarters in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, while armed police blocked roads leading to the building.
Electoral officials were meeting with political parties on Saturday to ask for their views regarding a postponement that had been requested by Nigeria’s national security adviser, politician Bashir Yusuf said. The adviser has argued that the military will be unable to provide adequate security for the elections because of operations against Boko Haram in the north-east, Mr Yusuf said.
A major offensive involving warplanes and ground troops from Chad and Nigeria has already forced the insurgents from a dozen towns and villages in the past 10 days. Even greater military strikes by more countries are planned.
On Saturday, African Union officials and representatives of countries supporting the 7,500-strong multinational force were ending a three-day meeting in the Cameroonian capital of Yaounde, to finalise details. However, details of funding – namely African officials wanting the United Nations and European Union to cover costs – may delay the mission which is set to include troops from Nigeria, as well as Chad, Cameroon, Benin and Niger.
Nigeria’s home-grown extremist group has responded to the initiative this week with attacks on one town in Cameroon and two in Niger. Officials said more than 100 civilians were killed and 500 wounded in Cameroon, while Niger said about 100 insurgents and one civilian died in attacks there on Friday. Several security forces from both countries were killed.
International concern about Boko Haram’s uprising has increased along with the death toll. In the past year alone, some 10,000 people have been killed, compared with a total of 2,000 in the four previous years, according to the US Council on Foreign Relations.
Officials in President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration have supported postponing the February 14 vote.
Any delay is opposed by an opposition coalition fielding former military dictator Muhammadu Buhari, despite the opposition standing to take most votes in Nigeria’s troubled north-east region.
Supporters of both sides are threatening violence if their candidate does not win. Some 800 people were killed in riots in the mainly Muslim north after Mr Buhari, a Muslim, lost 2011 elections to President Jonathan, a Christian from the south.
Analysts say the vote is too close to call and is the most tightly contested election since decades of military dictatorship ended in 1999.
Mr Jonathan’s party has won every election since then but the military’s failure to curb Boko Haram’s five-year uprising, growing corruption and an economy hit by halved oil prices have hurt the president.
A postponement also gives electoral officials more time to deliver some 30 million voter cards. Previously, the electoral commission said the non-delivery of cards to nearly half of Nigeria’s 68.8 million registered voters was not a good enough reason for delaying the vote.
* Associated Press with additional reporting by Agence France-Presse
