THE Presidential and National Assembly elections were held in Nigeria on February 25, 2023.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the presidential poll, ahead of 17 other candidates that contested the election.

The Chairman of INEC, Mahmood Yakubu, announced the results in the early hours of Wednesday, March 1, 2023.

According to the released result from INEC, Tinubu scored a total of 8,794,726 votes to defeat Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who polled a total of 6,984,520 votes, and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP), who came third with a total of 6,101,533 votes.

Both PDP and LP candidates rejected the outcome of the election and vowed to challenge it in court.

It should be noted that the Nigerian Supreme Court has never overturned a presidential dispute.

Election petitions question the legitimacy of an election or contest the outcome. 

It is a legitimate strategy for arguing that a declared or returned candidate did not win an election.

Election petition tribunals are specialised courts that handle election cases instead of regular courts.

CJN, Kayode Ariwoola

Elections in Nigeria are governed by Section 288 of the Constitution and the Electoral Act 2022.

Setting up Election Tribunal

It is a statutory responsibility of the Court of Appeal to set up the tribunals 30 days before the elections, as stated in Section 130(3)(a) of the Electoral Act 2022.

The register of the tribunals is expected to be opened at least seven days ahead of the elections.

The Court of Appeal acts as the court to handle presidential election issues. In contrast, Tribunals handle National, State Assembly and gubernatorial elections.

Who qualifies to file an election petition?

No matter how passionately a citizen feels about an election, merely being a Nigerian cannot serve as sufficient justification for launching a judicial challenge.

Only a candidate who ran for office or a political party may submit a petition to contest the results.

Grounds for filing an election petition

Section 134 of the Electoral Act states the grounds on which a petition can be filed.

LesbianBoy:
Worst election so far in our history

Legitisreal:
With the refusal of inec to grant obi access to bvas and other data, how would obi now pursue this case?

With inec reconfiguring the data how would obi now pursue this case?

With obi not having ozekhome how would he pursue this case?

Tinubu may succeed to be Nigeria president but we would have obi as our online president

Legitisreal:
With the refusal of inec to grant obi access to bvas and other data, how would obi now pursue this case?

With inec reconfiguring the data how would obi now pursue this case?

With obi not having ozekhome how would he pursue this case?

Tinubu may succeed to be Nigeria president but we would have obi as our online president

Legitisreal:
With the refusal of inec to grant obi access to bvas and other data, how would obi now pursue this case?

With inec reconfiguring the data how would obi now pursue this case?

With obi not having ozekhome how would he pursue this case?

Tinubu may succeed to be Nigeria president but we would have obi as our online president