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Supreme Court Judgement that Upheld INEC Power to Declare Election Inconclusive - Politics (4) - Nairaland

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Protest Breaks Out In Kano Over Judgement That Sacked Governor Yusuf / INEC’s Power To Return Candidate Dangerous — Wole Olanipekun / Deji Adeyanju Reacts To Supreme Court Judgement That Sacked Ihedioha As Governor (2) (3) (4)

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Re: Supreme Court Judgement that Upheld INEC Power to Declare Election Inconclusive by senatordave1(m): 10:25am On Sep 25, 2018
vankaid:

Results are first declared in local governments abi?
Now, were the the results of the affected local governments which housed the affected polling units declared by the REC of that LGA?

The argument here is that once you declare result of an election its only a tribunal that can void it.
Your getting confused.no results from those areas were declared.they were cancelled even before the close of voting
Re: Supreme Court Judgement that Upheld INEC Power to Declare Election Inconclusive by senatordave1(m): 10:27am On Sep 25, 2018
moderatedguy:
PDP might have an upper hand in court if they hinge on INECs inconsistency of which the court might be forced to apply the provisions of the Constitution against that of the electoral act.
Oga,the supreme court has ruled on this before.they wil end up abusing pdp lawyers at the end
Re: Supreme Court Judgement that Upheld INEC Power to Declare Election Inconclusive by OlujobaSamuel: 10:29am On Sep 25, 2018
LadyExcellency:


INEC didn't ask for a rerun rather for a runoff. A rerun will involve every voter rather than 3450 voters.
a rerun is for selected areas which might be partial or whole with all party inclusive, a runoff is for the whole areas with just the first and second winners as contestant.
The constitution made provision for runoff while inec guidlines made provision for rerun.
It was introduced by jega, he initially started with cancellation of votes of any area with irregularities, politicians capitalized on it to cause crisis in area of opponent strength to cause mayhem, so the rule was modified to accomodate such areas with cancelled vote if the registered voters is significant enough to cause a change in the final outcome.
The rule was challenged upto SC and the court ruled that inec is in order and the rule is not contrary to the constitutional provision that was laid claim to.
Re: Supreme Court Judgement that Upheld INEC Power to Declare Election Inconclusive by kahal29: 10:32am On Sep 25, 2018
Kennydoc:


Oga, are you alright? PDP is saying that based on the constitution (which is Nigeria's foremost rule of law), Adeleke should be declared winner, and you're saying they want the rule of law to be discarded? Electoral acts are not laws otherwise they would have been incorporated in the constitution, while on the contrary, the constitution is the body of laws governing administration in Nigeria. If there is a seeming contradiction between what the constitution says and what an act says, the constitution should be applied. That's the logic PDP is throwing up.
Think well before you comment.

This is exactly what Olanikpekun argued in the case above and the Supreme Court disagreed with him. Pls read and understand

Re: Supreme Court Judgement that Upheld INEC Power to Declare Election Inconclusive by comfortmusa: 10:33am On Sep 25, 2018
The new electoral Act propose to make the National Assembly election to come first, while that of the president is to now come last. But Buhari, in explaining his rejection of the bill claimed the planned amendment contravened the constitutional provision that accorded INEC full autonomy in matters of election organization, and supervision as provided for in Section 15 (a) of the Third Schedule to the Constitution.The legislators have however argued that they have not tampered with INEC’s powers to determine days for election, but are only concerned with the sequence of elections, which does not injure the spirit of Section 25. Why is the President withheld assent to the Electoral Act amendment Bill 2018. Buhari want to put the coming election into jeopardy. The inconsistency of INEC is the major problem of this electoral process.






kahal29:
Chapter 3 paragraph 3.11, step 14 of the Manual for Election Officials (updated version) at page 325 of Volume 1 of the record provides:

3.11: Final Collation and Declaration of Governorship Election Results at State Level:

The State Collation/Returning Officer for the Governorship shall:

Step 14: "Where the margin of win between the two leading candidates is not in excess of the total number of registered voters of the polling unit(s) where elections were cancelled or not held, decline to make a return until another poll has taken place in the affected polling unit(s) and the results incorporated into a new Form EC8D and subsequently recorded into a new form EC8E for Declaration and Return." (Emphasis mine)


The provision is clear and straight forward and did not require a foray into any other provisions in the Manual for it to be effected. There is no dispute as to the fact that the margin between the votes scored by the late Prince Audu and the appellant on the one hand and Capt. Wada and Arch. Awoniyi, on the other was 41,619, which was less than the total number of registered voters in the 91 polling units where votes were cancelled. I therefore agree with the court below that the 1st respondent was correct to have declared the election inconclusive on the basis of the number of registered voters in the 91 affected polling units.
Having regard to the clear provisions of the Election Manual, it would have been wrong for any electoral official to base his decision on any other consideration, such as the number of registered voters who had collected their PVCs,or the geographical spread of the votes already cast. Clear and unambiguous provisions must be given their natural and ordinary meaning. Neither the court nor learned counsel is entitled to read into a provision what it does not contain.

I must at this stage make a brief reference to Chief Olanipekun's contention that the lower court made a finding that the appellant and the late Prince Audu met the requirements of Section 179(2) but failed to give
the proper legal effect to such finding and that there is no appeal against the said finding. I have carefully examined the portion the judgment referred to at pages 1605 - 1606 of Volume 3 of the record, which reads:

"In the light of the facts and circumstances of this case, the appellant has contended that the failure of INEC to apply Section 181(1) of the Constitution in declaring the appellant as the duly elected Governor as at 21-11-2015 is an affront to and a disregard of the Constitution. The question which logically rises from Section 179(2) is whether, as at 21-11-2015, the joint ticket of Prince Audu and the appellant met the requirements of the provision.

The application of this provision turns on the peculiar facts and circumstances of the instant case. The law is trite that where any candidate to the office of a Governor meets with these requirements, he should be declared winner and returned as the duly elected Governor. This much has been held in a plethora of decided cases such as: Ngige V Obi (2006) 14 NWLR held that in the absence of a return by the 1* respondent declaring the appellant and the late Prince Audu as the duly elected Governor and Deputy Governor respectively, neither of them could be deemed to have been duly elected on 21/11/2015 as required by Section 179(2) of the Constitution.

The election conducted on 21/11/2015 was inconclusive until after the conduct of the supplementary election on 5/12/2015 which brought the entire process to conclusion.

It follows therefore, that as the appellant and Prince Audu were not returned as duly elected, there was no basis for the application of Section 181(1) of the Constitution, which allows a Deputy Governor elected with a duly elected Governor to step into the Governor's shoes in the event of death or any other factor leading to his inability to subscribe to the Oath of Allegiance and Oath of office.

Culled From

https://nigerialii.org/ng/judgment/supreme-court/2016/84
Re: Supreme Court Judgement that Upheld INEC Power to Declare Election Inconclusive by senatordave1(m): 10:34am On Sep 25, 2018
Kennydoc:


Oga, are you alright? PDP is saying that based on the constitution (which is Nigeria's foremost rule of law), Adeleke should be declared winner, and you're saying they want the rule of law to be discarded? Electoral acts are not laws otherwise they would have been incorporated in the constitution, while on the contrary, the constitution is the body of laws governing administration in Nigeria. If there is a seeming contradiction between what the constitution says and what an act says, the constitution should be applied. That's the logic PDP is throwing up.
Think well before you comment.
The supreme court has already ruled on this before based on what the op posted or didnt you read it? The inconsistency is from inec.the electoral acts are laws and an extension of the constitution.everything concerning sub-sectoral laws cant be written down in the consitution that is why we have sub laws like electoral acts,cbn act,interpretation act,penal code etc.every social sector has acts governing it drawn from the constitution as far as its not in conflict with the constitution.it is only an addendum,a corollary.the supreme court ruling in 2016 laid this to rest
Re: Supreme Court Judgement that Upheld INEC Power to Declare Election Inconclusive by vankaid: 10:37am On Sep 25, 2018
senatordave1:

Your getting confused.no results from those areas were declared.they were cancelled even before the close of voting
My bad!
Please educate me.
Which LGA(s) results in Osun were not declared. I thought every LGA result were declared before the final total count was reached.
Re: Supreme Court Judgement that Upheld INEC Power to Declare Election Inconclusive by senatordave1(m): 10:39am On Sep 25, 2018
comfortmusa:
The new electoral Act propose to make the National Assembly election to come first, while that of the president is to now come last. But Buhari, in explaining his rejection of the bill claimed the planned amendment contravened the constitutional provision that accorded INEC full autonomy in matters of election organization, and supervision as provided for in Section 15 (a) of the Third Schedule to the Constitution.The legislators have however argued that they have not tampered with INEC’s powers to determine days for election, but are only concerned with the sequence of elections, which does not injure the spirit of Section 25. Why is the President withheld assent to the Electoral Act amendment Bill 2018. Buhari want to put the coming election into jeopardy. The inconsistency of INEC is the major problem of this electoral process.






The constitution gave inec the power to regulate anything concerning elections.trying to amend the anend the electoral act to remove some of that power is wrong and is in conflict with the constitution.they should rather amend the constiution directly if they want to tamper with such powers
Re: Supreme Court Judgement that Upheld INEC Power to Declare Election Inconclusive by K0y3: 10:41am On Sep 25, 2018
This same nigeria's foremost rule of law gives the election empire(inec) to set and apply its rules and guidelines to ascertain if the candidate as been DULY returned as the winner. So u don't accept and reject one. Just like in bodmas, division is of the highest order of the mathematical operations but this same law also says bracket before division not minding if it is subtraction which is of the lowest order in the bracket. Do you understand?

Oga, are you alright? PDP is saying that based on the constitution (which is Nigeria's foremost rule of law), Adeleke should be declared winner, and you're saying they want the rule of law to be discarded? Electoral acts are not laws otherwise they would have been incorporated in the constitution, while on the contrary, the constitution is the body of laws governing administration in Nigeria. If there is a seeming contradiction between what the constitution says and what an act says, the constitution should be applied. That's the logic PDP is throwing up.
Think well before you comment.[/quote]
Re: Supreme Court Judgement that Upheld INEC Power to Declare Election Inconclusive by Butterflyleo: 10:43am On Sep 25, 2018
Kennydoc:


Oga, are you alright? PDP is saying that based on the constitution (which is Nigeria's foremost rule of law), Adeleke should be declared winner, and you're saying they want the rule of law to be discarded? Electoral acts are not laws otherwise they would have been incorporated in the constitution, while on the contrary, the constitution is the body of laws governing administration in Nigeria. If there is a seeming contradiction between what the constitution says and what an act says, the constitution should be applied. That's the logic PDP is throwing up.
Think well before you comment.

That is not the law. The constitution does not exist in isolation.

The supreme court has already given a legal precedence to this issue and has shown that Inec has the constitutional right to call for a run off based on the same genuine reasons inec has given for declaring this inconclusive.

Since this is the true situation under the law, then declaring anyone as winner is nullified until all legal requirements are met under the same constitution
Re: Supreme Court Judgement that Upheld INEC Power to Declare Election Inconclusive by SimonMagau: 10:44am On Sep 25, 2018
tongue
Re: Supreme Court Judgement that Upheld INEC Power to Declare Election Inconclusive by Butterflyleo: 10:46am On Sep 25, 2018
vankaid:

My bad!
Please educate me.
Which LGA(s) results in Osun were not declared. I thought every LGA result were declared before the final total count was reached.

They are talking about POLLINF UNITS and you are busy talking aboud LGA
Re: Supreme Court Judgement that Upheld INEC Power to Declare Election Inconclusive by Butterflyleo: 10:46am On Sep 25, 2018
vankaid:

My bad!
Please educate me.
Which LGA(s) results in Osun were not declared. I thought every LGA result were declared before the final total count was reached.

They are talking about POLLING UNITS and you are busy talking about LGA
Re: Supreme Court Judgement that Upheld INEC Power to Declare Election Inconclusive by K0y3: 10:47am On Sep 25, 2018
This same nigeria's foremost rule of law gives the election empire(inec) to set and apply its rules and guidelines to ascertain if the candidate as been DULY returned as the winner. So u don't accept and reject one. Just like in bodmas, division is of the highest order of the mathematical operations but this same law also says bracket before division not minding if it is subtraction which is of the lowest order in the bracket. Do you understand?


Kennydoc:


Oga, are you alright? PDP is saying that based on the constitution (which is Nigeria's foremost rule of law), Adeleke should be declared winner, and you're saying they want the rule of law to be discarded? Electoral acts are not laws otherwise they would have been incorporated in the constitution, while on the contrary, the constitution is the body of laws governing administration in Nigeria. If there is a seeming contradiction between what the constitution says and what an act says, the constitution should be applied. That's the logic PDP is throwing up.
Think well before you comment.
Re: Supreme Court Judgement that Upheld INEC Power to Declare Election Inconclusive by senatordave1(m): 10:51am On Sep 25, 2018
vankaid:

My bad!
Please educate me.
Which LGA(s) results in Osun were not declared. I thought every LGA result were declared before the final total count was reached.
Yes,inec declared all the results of all the local govts but in four lgas,results of seven polling units were cancelled due to several irregularities.the votes from this cancelled units is enough to affect the margin between pdp and apc hence the supplementary polls.when inec declares results,it doesnt mean that elections held everywhere and results were declared.there will always be cancellations.
Before 2010,pdp usually caused cancellations in areas where they are weak so that results declared will be from only where they are strong.inec then introduced supplementary polls in 2010 to remedy this evil act.it was first used in imo in 2011.this rule only applies to guber and presidential polls not legislative polls.bye polls,reruns are also excluded
Re: Supreme Court Judgement that Upheld INEC Power to Declare Election Inconclusive by moderatedguy: 10:51am On Sep 25, 2018
senatordave1:

Oga,the supreme court has ruled on this before.they wil end up abusing pdp lawyers at the end
na lie,what about INECs inconsistency?it would be called to question.
Re: Supreme Court Judgement that Upheld INEC Power to Declare Election Inconclusive by moderatedguy: 10:54am On Sep 25, 2018
kahal29:


I agree with you to the extent that INEC is inconsistent at times. This was exactly what happened between Sen Mao and Orji Uzor Kali in Abia North rerun election where Mao defeated Orji with 850 votes whereas the cancelled votes were up to 5000. Now INEC first declared the election inconclusive but thereafter reversed itself by saying that in a rerun election you don't declare an election inconclusive.

However I disagree on the point that the Supreme Court will toe the same line for the simple reason that the Supreme Court cannot become inconsistent or reverse itself because of INEC inconsistentency Their judgment is final.
The Supreme might want to teach INEC and APC a lesson here AND RULE IN FAVOUR OF PDP
Re: Supreme Court Judgement that Upheld INEC Power to Declare Election Inconclusive by senatordave1(m): 10:54am On Sep 25, 2018
Butterflyleo:


That is not the law. The constitution does not exist in isolation.

The supreme court has already given a legal precedence to this issue and has shown that Inec has the constitutional right to call for a run off based on the same genuine reasons inec has given for declaring this inconclusive.

Since this is the true situation under the law, then declaring anyone as winner is nullified until all legal requirements are met under the same constitution
My prayer now is that as pdp has gone to court,they should boycott the rerun.another issue is in which court is pdp heading to? Election tribunals have not been set up and this is not a pre election case so they cant approach the civil courts

1 Like

Re: Supreme Court Judgement that Upheld INEC Power to Declare Election Inconclusive by senatordave1(m): 10:56am On Sep 25, 2018
moderatedguy:
na lie,what about INECs inconsistency?it would be called to question.
Inec are not being inconsistent,there very consistent.its pdp that are bringing confusion.by the way which of the courts will pdp approach,civil or tribunals?
Re: Supreme Court Judgement that Upheld INEC Power to Declare Election Inconclusive by Kennydoc(m): 11:02am On Sep 25, 2018
kahal29:


This is exactly what Olanikpekun argued in the case above and the Supreme Court disagreed with him. Pls read and understand

It's alright. Law practice is a very complex discipline, and judgements are often subjective not always objective. The same case may be seen from different angles (with different possible outcomes) by lawyers of the same status in the same circumstances.
Even that Kogi judgement might have been different if Faleke was both Tinubu and Buhari's candidate. We all know Bello was (and still is) Buhari and Aisha's boy, and many people felt he won that case cos both Buhari and the northern cabals were on his side. Maybe that's why he worships Buhari more than any other APC governor. Anyway, that's not important anymore.

1 Like

Re: Supreme Court Judgement that Upheld INEC Power to Declare Election Inconclusive by K0y3: 11:03am On Sep 25, 2018
This is very funny, you think judges are moved by sympathy or emotions? They are unbiased and the irony of all these is that there is a template already in the case of the last election in kogi state at the supreme court.

moderatedguy:
The Supreme might want to teach INEC and APC a lesson here AND RULE IN FAVOUR OF PDP
Re: Supreme Court Judgement that Upheld INEC Power to Declare Election Inconclusive by 3kay945(m): 11:06am On Sep 25, 2018
Racoon:
Yet this same judgement never find application in the recent Kogi by-election.Continue the selective justice but karma is real.

They say its only applicable to Presidential and governorship election.

cool
Re: Supreme Court Judgement that Upheld INEC Power to Declare Election Inconclusive by Kennydoc(m): 11:06am On Sep 25, 2018
K0y3:
This same nigeria's foremost rule of law gives the election empire(inec) to set and apply its rules and guidelines to ascertain if the candidate as been DULY returned as the winner. So u don't accept and reject one. Just like in bodmas, division is of the highest order of the mathematical operations but this same law also says bracket before division not minding if it is subtraction which is of the lowest order in the bracket. Do you understand?



No wahala
Re: Supreme Court Judgement that Upheld INEC Power to Declare Election Inconclusive by vankaid: 11:11am On Sep 25, 2018
senatordave1:

Yes,inec declared all the results of all the local govts but in four lgas,results of seven polling units were cancelled due to several irregularities.the votes from this cancelled units is enough to affect the margin between pdp and apc hence the supplementary polls.when inec declares results,it doesnt mean that elections held everywhere and results were declared.there will always be cancellations.
Before 2010,pdp usually caused cancellations in areas where they are weak so that results declared will be from only where they are strong.inec then introduced supplementary polls in 2010 to remedy this evil act.it was first used in imo in 2011.this rule only applies to guber and presidential polls not legislative polls.bye polls,reruns are also excluded
If you declare an LGA results it means you have concluded with that LGA.
If you have an unfinished business with an LGA, you have no business declaring the result of that LGA and declaring someone a winner of that LGA and then turn back and say some polling units of that LGA had some results cancelled is illegal.
You do not have such power as INEC.

That's the argument here.
Re: Supreme Court Judgement that Upheld INEC Power to Declare Election Inconclusive by zomoears(m): 11:30am On Sep 25, 2018
If I understand the judgement above well, INEC was set up by d constitution for the purposes of conducting elections and other functions. By virtue of d constitution again, INEC is empowered to make riles and regulations governing the processes of elections. As such, d INEC manual for elections is in effect a bye-law since it is a creation of INEC pursuant to its constitutional powers, and is therefore a valid law in itself.

My interpretation of the above judgement is that INEC is capable of creating bye-laws that can be deemed to be superior to d constitution of the Federal repoublic of Nigeria. That the bye-laws created by INEC cannot be subjected to d constitution that created this same INEC? Especially where this constitution has made an EXPRESS pronunciation on how to return a Governor and President....

That is according to Justice Sylvester Ngwuta and his panel of judges...

Recipe for disaster. Interesting...
Re: Supreme Court Judgement that Upheld INEC Power to Declare Election Inconclusive by Pacesetter123(m): 11:34am On Sep 25, 2018
LadyExcellency:


Why was there no rerun when twelve LGAs were cancelled to declare Aregbesola the winner of Osun State Huber election in 2011? Do you know the reason the court gave.

NB: No insult, don't go personal. Just approach my questions or opinions from scholarly point of view. Thanks
This lady,i must commend ur maturity in approaching issue of public importance such as this.Your argument is purely issues-based and not on personality.Kip it up.
Re: Supreme Court Judgement that Upheld INEC Power to Declare Election Inconclusive by Butterflyleo: 11:34am On Sep 25, 2018
senatordave1:

My prayer now is that as pdp has gone to court,they should boycott the rerun.another issue is in which court is pdp heading to? Election tribunals have not been set up and this is not a pre election case so they cant approach the civil courts

Exactly! And this was why I said earlier that all this noise they are making about going to court is simply meant to whip up sentiments when in reality its simply foolishness
Re: Supreme Court Judgement that Upheld INEC Power to Declare Election Inconclusive by moderatedguy: 11:40am On Sep 25, 2018
K0y3:
This is very funny, you think judges are moved by sympathy or emotions? They are unbiased and the irony of all these is that there is a template already in the case of the last election in kogi state at the supreme court.

But they are also human beings,tthey know the card INEC IS PLAYING and they also know that their duty is to deliver Justice.
Re: Supreme Court Judgement that Upheld INEC Power to Declare Election Inconclusive by kahal29: 11:41am On Sep 25, 2018
moderatedguy:
The Supreme might want to teach INEC and APC a lesson here AND RULE IN FAVOUR OF PDP

No the Supreme Court is very careful in taking decisions
Re: Supreme Court Judgement that Upheld INEC Power to Declare Election Inconclusive by studentofTruth: 11:48am On Sep 25, 2018
I pity PDP shaa. They know they have been outplayed. APC is good at their game. The romance of INCONCLUSIVE ELECTION AND SUPPLEMENTARY ELECTION is just to divert attention from where it should be. OSHOGBO. what happened in Oshogbo?
On Sunday morning when I heard that PDP was leading after 29LGAs has been collatted, I simply checked the one LGA left. once I found out it's Oshogbo, I felt sorry for PDP. They just danced for nothing.

Using Oshogbo to completely overturn the lead will raise eyebrows, so they gave you guys something to masturbate over. It's all part of the playbook. Reason they have been silent as the game is being played.

Getting Omisore to behave is quite easy. He's been their tool all along.
Re: Supreme Court Judgement that Upheld INEC Power to Declare Election Inconclusive by senatordave1(m): 11:50am On Sep 25, 2018
vankaid:

If you declare an LGA results it means you have concluded with that LGA.
If you have an unfinished business with an LGA, you have no business declaring the result of that LGA and declaring someone a winner of that LGA and then turn back and say some polling units of that LGA had some results cancelled is illegal.
You do not have such power as INEC.

That's the argument here.
The constitution has given inec that power to regulate elections as it pleases legally.all this has been settled by the supreme court in 2016.inec hasnt declared anybody winner yet,it only declared results leaving out 7 polling units which is enough to affect the entire margin.there is no winner until the issue of 7 polling units is resolved

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