Election Fever - POSTPONED!
on Emily Bullock (Nigeria), 04/Apr/2011 20:39, 34 days ago
Havinghad strict advice from VSO not to leave the house for all voting days; on Friday, I made sure I had plenty of things to eat and drink on Saturday and prepared for day one of“house arrest”!I was very productive, pancakes for breakfast, mung beans cooked with coconut and chapattis for dinner, did my laundry, studied, watched two movies, but I began to understood the term“Cabin Fever”, which got worse when I found out the election had been postponed until Monday. However I thought I’d better not leave the house, unless VSO “released me” as there were rumours of trouble as people who were turned away from voting.The election was postponed because the ballot papers had only arrived in the country at 9am on Saturday, polling booths were due to open at 8am. I fail to see why this couldn’t be announced on Friday, but one of my colleagues told me that it was to prevent allegations of fraud, or to stop trouble or some such.So on Sunday, I had déjà vu of Friday, and prepared myself for another day of “house arrest”, for the Monday elections, only to be find out they were now to be held next Saturday. Both times I found out about the change of plan from friends postings on facebook, not from the BBC World Service which I listened to,VSO or the FCO travel advice to Nigeria.