Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana
SAN, has said that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has no
cogent reason to have postponed the elections originally scheduled for February
16.
Falana said this in a statement
released on Sunday.
The Senior Advocate of Nigeria
(SAN) stated that there are provisions for which an election can be postponed,
but that the reasons stated by INEC was not one of them.
INEC moved the general elections
to Saturday, February 23, about six hours to the start of the polls yesterday.
He also accused the government
and some political parties of playing a part in the postponement of the
elections.
Below is the senior advocate’s
full statement:
“By virtue of section 26 of the
Electoral Act, an election may be postponed if a serious breach of peace or
violence is likely to occur or on account of a natural disaster or other
emergencies.
To prevent any abuse of power the
reasons for postponement of any election must be cogent and verifiable.
Furthermore, section 105 of the
1999 Constitution of Nigeria provides that if the Federation is at war in which
the territory of the country is physically involved and the President considers
that it is not practicable to hold elections the national assembly may pass a
resolution to postpone the election. And such postponement shall not be more
than six months at any one time.
Therefore, any postponement of
elections on account of logistical or operational reasons cannot be justified
under the Electoral Act or the Constitution.
Since general elections had been
postponed on two previous occasions due to lack of adequate preparations the
Independent National Electoral Commission ought to have prevented the shifting
of the 2019 general election.
Even though all the political
parties have blamed INEC for the postponement some of them contributed to the
national shame and embarrassment.
Owing to the decision of
political leaders to select and impose candidates on their parties in utter
violation of section 87 of the Electoral Act many aggrieved candidates rushed
to court for legal redress.
Consequently, not less than 600
pre-election cases were filed and are pending in the various courts while not
less 40 orders have directed INEC to accept the names of candidates who won the
primaries but were shortchanged.
The resort to litigation due to
the impunity of majority of political parties contributed to the unwarranted
delay in the preparations of INEC for the general elections.
It is interesting to note that
both APC and PDP have traded their usual blames over the postponement of the
general election by the INEC. But apart from INEC, both parties ought to
apologise to Nigerians for their deliberate refusal to implement the
far-reaching recommendations of the Electoral Reforms Panels headed by Retired
Justice Mohammed Uwais, Sheik Ahmed Lemu and Dr Ken Nnamani which were set up
by the Yaradua, Jonathan and Buhari regimes respectively.
Each of the panels had
recommended the unbundling of INEC for effective performance. For instance, as
INEC lacks the capacity to prosecute electoral offenders an electoral offences
commission/ tribunal was recommended for the enforcement of laws to address all
forms of electoral offences and consequently stem the incidence of electoral
violence.
Even the panels had recommended
that the posts of the chairman and other members of the INEC be advertised in
order to make them independent of the Executive. But in a bid to sustain the
status quo of electoral fraud these recommendations and others have been
rejected by the PDP and APC-led Federal Government.
The shameful postponement of the
2019 general election would not have occurred if the Federal Government had
unbundled the INEC and ensured the practice of internal democracy in the
political parties.
It is public knowledge that both
APC and PDP have not committed themselves to electoral reforms. Hence, they
have conveniently forgotten that the late President Umoru Yaradua had admitted
that the 2007 general election which produced his regime was highly flawed.
Since the system will continue to
produce flawed elections all democratic forces should mount sufficient pressure
on the Federal Government to implement the recommendations of the aforesaid
electoral reform panels, once the 2019 rescheduled elections are concluded.
Meanwhile, INEC which has shifted
the general election by 7 days is alleged to have turned round to ban political
parties and their candidates from further campaigning for votes.
With respect, INEC has not paid
attention to Section 99 of the Electoral Act which provides that the period of
campaigning in public by political parties shall end 24 hours before polling
day. Since elections have been shifted the period of the campaign has also
shifted and will end 24 hours to the new polling day.
Therefore, the limitation of
campaign imposed by INEC should be reversed without any delay. Furthermore,
INEC should comply with all valid and subsisting court orders with respect to
the candidates sponsored by political parties for the general elections.
Otherwise, the courts may annul some of the elections conducted by INEC on
grounds of exclusion of qualified candidates.”
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com