ELECTION PETITION: A PANACEA? Few weeks to the general elections. The campaigns are both on salient and petty issues. The nation is agog for the elections come February 14 and 28 of this year. Everybody will head to the poll! There is much frenzy in the air after that the results would be announced by INEC and after that.... The aggrieved parties would head to the Tribunals to ventilate their grievances, the goal post shift from the generality of the populace to a select few individuals-Parties, Counsel and Court. The fiercest of litigation, call it the mother of all battles you are not wrong! It kicks off in the Tribunal then a verdict ensues and the concomitant appeals. At the end of the day one thing is certain, a party goes home happy the adversary goes home sullen and heart broken! Now my colleagues with our various post call experiences as advocates let us appraise the election petition jurisprudence. Can we say: 1. There is a level playing ground; when the petitioner is circumscribed by time to prove his case; the time limitation of doing election cases does it assist justice or derail same? 2. Are the electoral laws unduly skewed against the Petitioner? Can we say really that with ordinary diligence expended in prosecuting other civil suits we can achieve same results in election litigation? Is the Petitioner facing a near impossible task in proving his case or can we attribute the lack of success in prosecuting petitions successfully to other factors aside the laws? 3. Is it still okay not to imbue the umpire with any sort of burden. INEC as it stands now have no burden to prove that the election was conducted in deference to electoral laws, does this fact make mockery of the election litigation system? 4. Are our electoral laws sufficient remedy for electoral malfeasances? Gentlemen let us brainstorm on these posers! Happy Weekend!
Posted on: Sat, 10 Jan 2015 11:48:49 +0000
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