Courts dealing with 809 cases over improper primaries - INEC
Posted by FN Editor | 5 years ago | 1,274 times
Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has again lamented the growing impunity and lack of internal democracy within political parties, saying the judiciary was confronted with about 809 pre-election cases stemming from disagreements regarding the conduct of party primaries.
INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, disclosed this in Abuja, yesterday, while presenting certificates of return to the governor-elect of Zamfara State, Bello Mutawalle, his deputy, three senators-elect, and seven House of Representatives members-elect, all on the platform of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
Yakubu spoke against the backdrop of Friday’s Supreme Court judgement, which invalidated the election of candidates of All Progressives Congress, APC, as a result of improper conduct of primaries.
He said: “I want to reiterate the importance of conducting proper primaries before elections to reduce the spate of litigation associated with them. At the moment, there are 809 pre-election cases pending in various courts across the country challenging the conduct of primaries by political parties for the 2019 general elections. ‘’This is clearly more than the total number of petitions currently before the various election petition tribunals nationwide challenging the outcome of the main elections.
“In our last update, the commission reported that 25 certificates of return had been withdrawn and issued to persons declared winners by courts of law. Since then, three more certificates have been withdrawn by court order.
“With the Zamfara case, the figure has now risen to 64. In addition, the commission is studying nine more judgements we were served in the last one week in which primary elections conducted by different political parties were upturned by the courts.”
Yakubu, however, conceded that the Zamfara example was not the first pre-election case determined by the Supreme Court arising from the recent party primaries as the apex court had determined the case of Lere Federal Constituency in Kaduna State, which the commission had already complied with and issued the certificate of return to the winner. He said: “It is, therefore, important to continue to emphasise to our political parties their obligation to conduct credible primaries for the nomination of candidates.”
“Going forward, we will not accept the submission of names of candidates by political parties under Section 31of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended) unless there is evidence, monitored by the commission, of compliance with the provision of Section 87 of the Act.
“Party members interested in contesting elections start as aspirants before they emerge as candidates through the democratic process of direct or indirect primaries enshrined in Section 87 of the Electoral Act.
“It is only after they comply with this requirement of the law can their names be submitted to INEC under Section 31. We shall continue to work with the political parties to ensure strict compliance.
“Let me once again remind political parties that we have exactly 171 days to the Bayelsa and Kogi governorship elections scheduled for November 16, 2019. Party primaries are scheduled to be conducted between August 2 and 29, 2019.” Responding on behalf of the elected officials, Matawalle promised to deliver on his mandate, and advised political parties to play by the rules and ensure internal democracy.
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