The entire political community and voters of Nigeria went into complete disarray Saturday when the local electoral authority announced they would be delaying the elections by a week. The announcement came hours before polling was set to begin.
At a press conference, the independent electoral commission’s chief said that elections were being delayed by a week due to logistical issues, bad weather, and a probable sabotage of elections owing to fires at three electoral facilities.
The incumbent president, Muhammadu Buhari said that he was “deeply disappointed” but urged voters to remain calm. The opposition leader, Atiku Abubakar, also asked for patience, but accused the government of indulging in “anti democratic acts”.
Why are delayed elections a problem?
The delay is causing two problems in the Nigerian political system.
First, the election scheduled to take place later this week is now being seen as murky by some voters and political elite. This suspicion comes as a set of state-level elections last year was marked by “irregularities”. This is raising questions about the capacity of electoral commission to conduct a fair election.
Second, a lot of voters have travelled hundreds of kilometres to be in their native towns to be able to vote. These voters are now forced to extend their stays until they can vote the coming Saturday. Moreover, voters complain that they are staying back without knowing whether the elections conducted will be fair and lead to a conclusive result.
A history of messy elections
The delay in conducting elections is not a one-off event. Rather, Nigeria has had a messy track record with respect to hosting elections.
Back in 2011, about 800 people had died in post-election violence.
The last election was also delayed to due to security and logistical reasons. And the election conducted in 2015 was delayed by six weeks due to insurgent activities by Boko Haram in northern Nigeria.
Further reading:
Nigeria election: Anger and frustration after poll delay, BBC
Chinese equity markets hit a bull run after devastating 2018
As the fear of a global economic slowdown mounts, there is finally some good news coming from an unlikely suspect, China.
After a devastating 2018, where CSI 300 index of companies listed in Shenzhen and Shanghai fell by 26 per cent through the year, the index in a reversal of its fortunes recovered by 10.9 per cent this year, emerging as one of the top performers.
There are chiefly two reasons, which have caused such a sharp turn in Chinese markets.
First, in response to Fed signalling future rate cutting, the Chinese central bank has hiked its interest rates. Furthermore, this ease in liquidity is being supported by the central bank facilitating a mechanism whereby most private banks will now be responsible for lending to private firms. This helped financial stocks rally.
Second, authorities have also lowered taxes.
This mixture of monetary and fiscal policy expansion resulted in an inflow of a record $9 billion into Chinese equity markets.
Further reading:
China stocks roar back after grim 2018, Financial Times