The era of internal democracy that can make a loser become a winner without going to Court

O yes! The title is very true, apt and I have seen it happen before my eyes. I will talk about this today, that is the unreported case of SALLAU V. KARFI. I have earlier laid emphasis on the importance of primary elections to be the foundation of all elections without which no election can be lawfully won. We can refresh our minds that within the short history of Nigerian democracy, we have have come through 3 periods with regards to primary election:
1. Absolute Party supremacy
2. Regulated Party Supremacy and now
3. The era of internal democracy that can make a loser become a winner without going to Court. I will explain how this is legally possible. Meanwhile, you can get the previous bulletins to understand the other two era. This is important for you to understand the present era. The advantage of hindsight.

Now let's return to the most interesting part of these periods, that's the period we are in. What I call, Internal democracy and the decision of Supreme Court in Sallau v Karfi.

The law as it stands now is that a political party must conduct primaries. It must do so in democratic manner with fairness to all candidates. The actual votes casted at primary election must be recorded without any manipulation. There must not be over voting even by addition of 1 vote. Each vote must count. A single vote can make the difference. The party must obey its own constitution and guidelines for the 2019 elections. No cutting of corners otherwise it will cost them the seat even if they win general election. At least the Supreme Court says so.

Here is the gist of the case. Karfi and Sallau are both APC members contesting for House of Assembly in Kano. They got the following primary elections result:
Karfi -258
Sallau -240
12 votes was added to Sallau to make it 262 and thus became APC candidate, won general election and was enjoying his office and money when the case got to Supreme Court. So what did the Supreme Court do?

The law lords agreed that over voting in APC primaries rendered the primaries cancelled or if like void. They also said "The era of recklessness and impunity by political parties is over. It is an aspect of corruption for a political party to disobey its constitution and guidelines in order to impose candidates on the electorates. " For this reason, they said APC had no candidate in law. If you are thinking what I'm thinking it will all APC votes in the general election became waisted votes. Yes, waisted. In fact, from INEC results... Votes became waisted.

They concluded that APC had no candidate at the election because of the over voting. Although the PDP candidate in actual fact lost the general election and was not even in court or a party to the case, the Supreme Court ordered that the PDP candidates be immediately sworn into office. In fact, they didn't know his name, they said the Speaker of Kano State House of Assembly or Clerk should swear in the runner up. Yes they only knew and refer to him as runner up. Too bad for APC candidate as he was also directed to return all salaries.

This is one case where a loser can become a winner even without going to Court because of poorly conducted primary elections. There are other grounds. Next edition will focus on inconclusive primaries.

*LAW TO REMEMBER*

You can be imprisoned for 12 months if you campaign or promote a politician or party in Mosque or Church. S. 95 EA

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*P. D. Pius,* Esq., LLM, ACIArb. (UK)
Abuja, Nigeria