By Ade Martins-
The Federal high court in Abuja has ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to accept the nomination of candidates of the Labour Party (LP) in 24 states for the governorship 2023 general elections in 24 states, rebuking it for violating statute.
In a potential game changer for the registered party representatives of many of the states, Justice Inyang Ekwo on Thursday delivered his judgment in the suits filed by the Labour party to challenge the non-recognition of its candidates in 24 states, held that INEC violated sections 31, 33, and 36 of the Electoral Act 2022 in rejecting the party’s candidates in the affected states on the ground of non-functioning of its nomination portal.
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A number of states had been unable to change their registered candidates for various party due to a defect in the electronic portal, and the INEC eventually debarred them from doing so, citing a lapsed deadline.
Several states in the Labour party and other parties have been in court contesting the integrity of process that selected some of the state party representatives for respective governorship posts to be contested.
Fraud had been alleged in some circumstances, in others, malicious antiparty tactics involving briberies were alleged.
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The judge ordered the INEC to accept the list of candidates in the 24 states either manually or through its electronic nomination portal.
The party last November, conducted substitution nominations for its candidates who withdrew from the 2023 general elections in the affected states.
The withdrawals were communicated to INEC by the national chairman and national secretary of the party along with notification of the October 27 date to conduct substitution nomination primary elections.
Justice Ekwo agreed with the Labour Party that nomination and submission of the candidates’ list cannot be rejected by INEC from any party until 90 days before the general elections.
However, at the point of uploading the fresh candidates’ names, INEC claimed its nomination portal was faulty and declined to accept the candidates’ list manually, prompting the 24 legal actions.
Ekwo said the evidence of the party, through letters exchanged with INEC in the nomination issue, was credible and proceeded to attach probative value to it.
The judge held that the consequences of non-functional electronic nomination portal could not be visited on the party.
The new representatives will have just little over a month to campaign, and are already have a disadvantage against their competitors who have been campaigning for months now, many using the unethical means of money to buy voters in their respective states.
The Labour party has long been an insignificant party, trailing the dominant PDP and APC party, but became more significant when its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, left the PDP party and shifted to Labour. He has been heavily endorsed by the youth and several dignitaries, due to his integrity and past track record.
Historical convention suggests that the winner of the presidential party will come from one of the two ruling parties-the PDP or the APC, but Obi has so far proved a relatively strong underdog not to be underestimated.
Whether he can translate his huge social media votes to real votes come election day on February 23, remains to be seen.
The Nigerian 2023 elections promises to be full of challenges, with insecurity rife and many structural issues still posing serious questions about how effective and credible the elections will be
President Ibrahim Buhari has promised a credible elections for this year.
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