Independent commission fixes Aug. 14 for Kaduna  LG polls

The Kaduna State  Independent Electoral Commission (KAD-SIECOM) has tentatively fixed the conduct of elections in the 23 Local Governments in the state for Aug. 14.

Acting Chairman of the commission, Ibrahim Sambo, announced the new date during a meeting with the leadership of political parties and other stakeholders in Kaduna.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the election, which had earlier been scheduled to hold on  May 15,  was rescheduled to June 5.

This followed a series of complaints from stakeholders that they were not given the mandatory 90-day notice before the commencement of the election.

Sambo said KAD-SIECOM was forced to postpone the poll over the non-availability of non-sensitive materials for the poll.

The non-sensitive materials, according to Sambo, included batteries to power the electronic voting machine.

Sambo explained that the commission was still awaiting the delivery of the EVM batteries from the manufacturers in China.

Disclosing this before political parties and other major stakeholders, the chairman added that the shipment dates for the delivery of the EVM batteries from China to Abuja was scheduled for between July 1 and July 10.

He also explained that charging of the EVM batteries with fixing and sorting of other electoral materials would take an additional 14 days from July 17 to Aug. 2.

He added that from Aug. 2, it would take another  two days for “the distribution of sensitive election materials before the commission proposes a possible election date.”