By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch, Managing Editor

ABUJA, Nigeria – Nigeria’s electoral commission has announced that it will postpone Nigeria’s presidential and legislative elections, which were initial scheduled to be held on February 14, 2015, for six weeks to give a new multinational force time to secure northeastern areas under the heavy attack from Boko Haram, an official close to the commission told said on Saturday. Millions of Nigerian voters could be disenfranchised if next week’s elections went ahead while Boko Haram continues to hold large swaths of the northeast region of the country and continues commit attacks against civilian populations which have driven 1.5 million people from their homes.

Electoral officials reportedly met with political parties Saturday, asking for their views on a postponement requested by the national security adviser, politician Bashir Yusuf told reporters saying the adviser argued the military will be unable to provide adequate security for the elections because of operations in the northeast.

A postponement in the elections will also allow for more time for electoral officials more time to deliver 30 million voter cards. The commission had previously stated that the non-delivery of cards to nearly half of Nigeria’s 68.8 million registered voters was not a good enough reason to delay the elections.

Civil rights groups staged a small protest on Saturday in opposing any proposed postponement of the elections. Police reportedly prevented demonstrators from entering the electoral commission headquarters in the nation’s capital, Abuja. Armed police blocked roads leading to the government building. Officials in President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration have previously called for postponement of the elections. Jonathan’s party has won every election since the end of military dictatorship in Nigeria in 1997 but the failure of the military stop the Islamic uprising, which has grown over the past 5 years, coupled with growing corruption and an economy hit hard by the recent dive in international oil prices have hurt Goodluck Jonathan, the head of state of Africa’s largest oil producer and most populous nation.

Any postponement in the vote is opposed by an opposition coalition which has fielded the former military dictator, Muhammadu Buhari, in this year’s elections. The coalition opposes the postponement despite the act that it is expected to win most votes in the northeast region of the country. Analysts say the vote is too close to call and believe it is the closest election since the end of military dictatorship in 1999.

Supporters of both candidates are threatening violence if their candidate does not prevail in the elections. An estimated 800 people were killed in riots in the majority Muslim northern regions of Nigeria after Buhari, a Muslim, lost the 2011 elections to Jonathan, a Christian from the southern region of the country.

For more information please see:

ABC News – Nigeria Postponing Feb. 14 Vote Amid Boko Haram Violence – 7 February 2015

The Boston Globe – Nigeria Postpones Elections amid Violence – 7 February 2015

The Guardian – Nigeria To Postpone Elections To Fight Boko Haram – 7 February 2015

Al Jazeera America – The Real Reason Nigeria Should Delay Elections – 5 February 2015