Off the wire
• LME base metals prices decline mostly on Friday  • UN calls for more efforts to fight human trafficking, modern slavery  • Ukraine okays formation of joint military unit with Poland, Lithuania  • France, Germany want to keep Greece in the euro amid bailout dispute  • 1st LD Writethru: UN chief calls on all Syrian parties to pave way for political solution  • Spanish stock market falls 0.29 pct, closes at 10,879 points  • U.S. fines Japanese airbag maker Takata for not cooperating in investigation  • Finland to introduce computer programming in primary schools  • Roundup: 45 killed in car bombing by IS in eastern Libya  • FTSE 100 approaches to all-time high on bullish data  
You are here: 　 Home

UN chief urges Nigeria to respect new elections calendar

Xinhua, February 21, 2015 Adjust font size:

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday urged Nigeria to respect the new calendar of the postponed elections, while voicing his strong concern over reports of election-related violence.

"Following the postponement of general elections in Nigeria to 28 March and 11 April, the Secretary-General strongly urges the government and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to ensure these new dates are maintained, in accordance with the provisions of the Nigerian Constitution," said UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric while reading a statement at a daily news briefing.

Ban urged all relevant national institutions to continue to work with INEC to ensure all voters can exercise their constitutional rights to participate in the elections "freely and without intimidation," according to Dujarric.

Expressing "strong concern" over reports of election-related violence, Ban urged all political leaders to "adhere to their commitments under the Abuja Accord, to refrain from inflammatory statements and to immediately condemn any statements from their supporters that amount to an incitement to violence or subversion of the electoral process."

The UN chief also reiterated that the world organization will be closely following developments and is offering its full support to Nigeria at this important moment.

Nigeria's presidential and national assembly elections were previously set on Feb. 14 and Feb. 28, respectively. The country announced on Feb. 7 a six-week postponement to the elections citing fears over security and the Boko Haram insurgency. Endite