The Independent National
Electoral Commission, INEC, has given reasons it refused to cancel the results
of the just concluded governorship elections in Bayelsa and Kogi States.
INEC’s National Commissioner of
Information and Voter Education, Mr Festus Okoye, explained that the Commission
failed to void results of the just concluded governorship elections because no
law in Nigeria empowered it to cancel an election.
Okoye made the disclosure during
an interactive session with the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room organized
in Abuja, on Wednesday, aimed at reviewing some lapses observed in the just
concluded November 16 elections.
He stated that Section 26 of the
Electoral Act only gave INEC the power to postpone an impending election and
not cancel an already conducted poll.
The INEC Commissioner insisted
that the Commission was helpless, despite several protests it received for
election results from the two states to be canceled.
He said: “My understanding of the
whole issue, especially on Electoral reform is that electoral designs alone
will never and can never solve the problem or our electoral challenges unless
we have a concomitant will. Unless the elites in this country believe in our
democracy and the democratic system, even if we amend our laws 100 times it
will not solve our problem.
“The second issue is that those
of us who are in INEC and CSOs have a responsibility to understand the
processes and procedures of the Commission and how it functions and some of the
powers donated to the Commission, the limitations of those powers and how they
can be exercised and how they cannot be exercised.
“I say this because, on the issue
of cancellation and whether INEC could have cancelled the elections, my own
understanding of the rules of interpretation is that when the intention of the
legislature is very clear, you give a particular provision its ordinary
meaning. You can’t give any other meaning into the provisions of the law if the
intentions of the lawmakers are very clear.
“I believe that the intentions of
the lawmakers can be deduced from the clear wording of section 26 of the
Electoral Act. It gives the Commission the power to postpone, not cancel an
election before the election starts.
“It says that where a date has
been appointed for the holding of an election and there is reason to believe
that there is a serious breach of peace is likely to occur if the election
proceeds on that day or that it is impossible to conduct the election as a
result of natural disaster or other emergencies, the Commission may postpone
the election and in respect of the area or areas concerned, appoint another day
for the holding of the election provided that such reason for the postponement
is cogent and verifiable.
“There is no provision of the law
that gives the Commission the power to cancel. The law gave the commission the
power to postpone an election and then go back if the conditions have improved.
“My second point is that if you look at the decisions of the Supreme Court in
relation to our processes and procedures, it states clearly that the moment a
presiding officer has announced the results from a polling unit, the Chairman
of INEC does not have the power to cancel the result from the particular unit.
In other words, each polling unit is sovereign in its own right. So the fact
that there is a problem in one polling unit does not concomitantly mean that
there is a problem in another polling unit. The moment a presiding officer has
announced, there is nothing we can do about it.
“The other point is that this
commission has attempted to be the driver of this process, in two senatorial
zones in Imo state, in one Federal Constituency in Benue in two-state
constituencies in Niger and Akwa Ibom, we made a point that the returning
officers for those constituencies announced results under conditions that were
cloudy and we decided to withhold the Certificate of Return for those constituencies.
“They simply went to court and
the court said look the moment a Returning Officer has made a return, only a
court of law can reverse whatever was done. “The third point relates to the
whole issue of section 177 of the Constitution. Just before the elections, the
political parties were asked to submit names and list of their candidates.
About seven of them submitted under-aged candidates and we said that those
nominations were invalid and we would not take it because we believe that we
are the regulatory agency and that since the Constitution said that only a
Nigerian by birth can contest governorship election, that it would be
irresponsible for the Commission to sit back and then a Chinese national will
be nominated to contest governorship election and in the affidavit the person
said I am from China, or somebody is nominated and the person said I am five
years old and there is an affidavit backing it.
“So we wrote to those parties
that their nominations were invalid. They went to court and the court said no,
that before we can even remove the name of an under-aged candidate, or before
we can remove the name of a Chinese if the person has been nominated, that we
must, first of all, come to court to get permission.”
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