Nigeria’s electoral body, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, says the country’s 2023 presidential, governoship, National and State Assembly elections should not be isolated to only 28 States as other Governorship elections are held off- circle.
Reponding to a report in one of Nigeria’s national daily newspapers entitled “INEC’s credibility sinks as 94% contested posts awaits tribunal” says the report contains inaccurate figures, mix up of pre-election and post-election cases, skewed comparative perspective and a headline that suggests that election petitions draw from the action or inaction of INEC.
National Commissioner and chairman Information and Voter Education Committee, Mr. Sam Olumekun, in a press release, said basic fact check on the information regualrly published by the Commission and available on its website would have shown that in 2023, elections were conducted in 1,491 constituencies across the country made up of one Presidential, 28 Governorship, 109 Senatorial, 360 House of Representatives and 993 State Assembly constituencies.
Mr. Olumekun said to claim that state Assembly elections were held in only 28 States of the country was made on the lazy assumption that no such elections were held in the eight States of the federation where executive elections are held off-cycle.
“As every attentive Nigerian knows, the tenure of legislators is tied to the legislative houses which is a fixed term of four years from the date the Assembly is inaugurated unlike the term of office of the executive which begins from the date they take the oath of office,” he said.
Olumekunsaid pre election cases arising from the conduct of primary elections by political parties cannot be blamed on INEC as these are intra-party cases involving party members in which they join the Commission and seek for reliefs binding on it, noting that INEC does not conduct primaries for political parties.
“In pursuit of their right under the law, many litigants in Nigeria unfortunately file election petitions over the most improbable cases and later withdraw them or they are dismissed by the tribunals.
“If the report had taken time to analyse the outcome of the cases decided so far by the tribunals, it would have discovered that out of 1,196 petitions, 712 were dismissed and 179 withdrawn.
“This means that in 891 cases (74.4%), the tribunals found no merit in the petitions and affirmed the result of the elections conducted by INEC. It is surprising how the mere filing of petitions constitute a blot on the integrity of the recent elections conducted by INEC when in fact they constitute an integral part of the democratic process,” he explained.
The INEC National Comisaion further explained that “In anlysing litigations from the February and March elections should be done comprehensively not only by the total number of petitions as if they were filed against the outcome of the election in 94% of all the elective positions without considering details of the cases. Multiple petitions were filed by candidates and political parties as petitioners in a single Constituency. For example, in one State in the South South geopolitical zone of the country, eight petitions were filed challenging the Governorship election out of which seven were dismissed and one withdrawn.
“Therefore, the number of election petitions filed in respect of all elective offices will certainly outnumber the total number of constituencies/elective offices. To spread them across the constituencies and proceed to calculate the percentage is to count some constituencies several times which is methodologically problematic and statistically illogical.”
Mr. Sam Olumekun said that the grounds for challenging the outcome of an election as provided in Section 134 of the Electoral Act, 2022 are not limited to the conduct of election by the Commission.
He added that an election may be questioned on the ground that the winner of the election was not qualified to contest the election by virtue of his academic qualifications, age and others.
Confidence Okwuchi
