If this judgement stands, it would be a big boast to internal party democracy because party bosses would then have a strong disincentive not to substitute the names of people who have validly won their party primaries.
On Saturday, the Taraba State Governorship Elections Petition
Tribunal nullified the victory of Governor Darius Dickson Ishaku of the
PDP in the April 11, 2015 election and declared his opponent from the
APC, Hajiya Aisha Jummai Alhassan the winner. The tribunal ruled that
Darius Dickson Ishaku was not sponsored by any political party to run in
the election as required by law. In consequence, in a unanimous
decision, the tribunal ordered the APC candidate to be sworn-in as
governor, having scored the second highest lawful votes cast in the
election.
The tribunal was of the view that the purported nomination of the
sacked governor by the PDP had breached Section 85 of the Electoral Act
2010 because there was no notification to INEC on the conduct of its
December 8, 2014 party primary, 21 days before the event. Their position
is that the PDP did not have a candidate in the governorship election
and that the votes counted for Ishaku were therefore ‘wasted votes.’ The
tribunal held that it was a fundamental law in Nigeria that a candidate
for an elective position must be dully nominated and sponsored by a
registered political party before the candidature of such candidate can
be legally valid. Their conclusion therefore was that since Darius
Ishaku was not sponsored by any known registered political party, he
cannot lay claim to votes cast for any political party.
INEC made a bold attempt in 2011 to disqualify candidates who had not won their primaries but the courts for the most part supported the illegalities carried out by the political parties. It was therefore the courts that facilitated the tradition of disregarding due process mechanism in candidate nomination. This judgement would therefore be an important break through for democracy if it stands.
Immediately after the release of the judgement, Mr. Ishaku held a
news conference in Jalingo and announced that he would appeal the
verdict. Of course he would remain governor until the determination of
the appeal following which he would vacate the office or remain if he
wins. The question for Aisha Alhassan is whether she is the favoured
daughter of the Electoral Act. The Act is clear in Section 87 b (ii)
that someone is a candidate for governor only if the person is “the
aspirant with the highest number of votes at the end of the voting (and)
shall be declared winner of the primaries” and the name of the person
shall be forwarded to INEC. This law has been systematically breached
and the reality on the ground is that most political parties tend to
submit names of people who had not won their primaries, and in many
cases had not even contested. If this judgement stands, it would be a
big boast to internal party democracy because party bosses would then
have a strong disincentive not to substitute the names of people who
have validly won their party primaries.
The parties have been able to systematically violate the Electoral
Act with impunity because of the provision of Section 31 of the same
Act. It states that “Every political party shall… submit to the
Commission in the prescribed forms the list of the candidates the party
proposes to sponsor at the elections, provided that the Commission shall
not reject or disqualify candidates for any reason whatsoever”. It was
this provision that made it impossible for INEC to implement the
provision that all candidates must have participated and won their
primaries. INEC made a bold attempt in 2011 to disqualify candidates who
had not won their primaries but the courts for the most part supported
the illegalities carried out by the political parties. It was therefore
the courts that facilitated the tradition of disregarding due process
mechanism in candidate nomination. This judgement would therefore be an
important break through for democracy if it stands.
As the integrity of our electoral process improves due to the dual emergence of improved performance by INEC and more mandate protection vigilance from citizens, improving internal party democracy would provide a fillip to the democratic process.
It would be recalled that the Taraba elections were characterised by
irregularities and INEC had to order fresh elections in parts of the
State. The other issue in the close fought election was the possible
emergence of an elected female governor, which would be a historic event
in the country. Back to the Electoral Act, some lawyers have argued
that in the event of a declaration that a candidate that won was not a
valid candidate, the tribunal should call for new elections rather than
declare the person that came second as winner. The case is therefore
complicated and we will have to await the appeal process to determine
jurisprudence on this matter.
Meanwhile, it is important that the new Commission in INEC should
immediately take up the issue of revising the Electoral Act to remove
all ambiguities. It is important for the consolidation of democracy that
parties learn to organise free and fair primaries and respect their
outcomes. By so doing, those who emerge from the process would be the
most popular within the parties and therefore the people with the
highest possibilities of winning their elections. The most serious
threat to Nigerian democracy is the imposition of candidates by
godfathers, who steal the mandate of party members and determine
outcomes. People who have emerged because godfathers had imposed them
owe their loyalty to the said godfathers and not the people. As the
integrity of our electoral process improves due to the dual emergence of
improved performance by INEC and more mandate protection vigilance from
citizens, improving internal party democracy would provide a fillip to
the democratic process. The courts too have their role to play in
correctly interpreting the law to ensure that those who did not pass the
popularity test in party primaries do not parade themselves as
legitimate members of the corridors of power.
- Premium Times
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