INEC worries over conflicting judgments, orders

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has
expressed concern over the conflicting judgments and consequential
orders emanating from courts, ahead of the forthcoming general
polls.

The inconsistency, INEC Chairman Prof. Mahmood Yakubu noted, is
putting the commission in a difficult situation.

In the last one week, there were two different court
pronouncements on Zamfara State All Progressives Congress (APC)
primaries – one coming from a High Court in Zamfara and an Abuja
High Court issuing a different order concerning INEC decision
excluding the APC from the state from the coming elections as a
result of not conducting their primaries within deadline.

Already, the commission has been sued into 396 pre-election
cases pending court cases as a result of the fallout of the party
primaries.

Besides, the commission has so far received 302 requests for
Certified True Copies (CTCs) of documents from primaries monitored,
which serves as a prelude for more legal actions.

This is aside the 52 petitions on protests from aggrieved party
aspirants received by the commission – all have financial
implications for INEC.

INEC has fixed February 16 for the presidential and March 2
National Assembly polls been slated for the governorship, state
assembly and council elections.

Speaking yesterday at a workshop on election petition for
justice and judges, Yakubu noted the inevitability of disputes in
the course of democratic elections.

He, therefore, explained that because democratic elections are
adjudicated by the Judiciary, the commission has always been
obeying court orders.

He expressed the concern of the commission regarding conflicting
orders from the court.

Prof Yakubu said: “On our part, there are two major areas of
concern. First is the issue of conflicting judgements arising from
pre-election and post-election cases. As a firm believer in the
rule of law, the commission always obeys court orders or, where it
is considered necessary, appeals them in the interest of
justice.

“There have been over 1,200 cases involving the commission since
the 2015 general elections and not in a single case has the
commission disobeyed a court order. However, conflicting
judgements, especially by courts of co-ordinate jurisdiction at the
high court level, are putting the commission in a very difficult
position and creating uncertainty in the process.

‘The court in one judicial division may order the commission on
a particular course of action only to be contradicted by another
court of coordinate jurisdiction from another division or even
within the same division on the same subject matter. Conflicting
court orders are negatively affecting the consistency, neutrality,
and public perception, not only of the commission, but the
judiciary as well. There is, therefore, the urgent need to address
the issue of conflicting judgements in order to engender certainty
in the electoral process.

“Our second area of concern relates to the lack of consequential
Orders by the courts after making findings on an issue and stating
the position. In such cases, the Commission is compelled to take a
position relying on previous decisions of the Court on the
subject.”