The declaration by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) as winner of Saturday’s Imo North Senatorial District bye-election without mentioning who the candidate was “is a gross anomaly, an aberration with no legs to stand in any court or Tribunal.”
This is according to Senator Emma Nwaka, a seasoned lawyer and former Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Abia State. He told News Express on Sunday shortly after the declaration by INEC: “In the final analysis, I see the PDP being the beneficiary of this INEC faux pas in that it recognised the PDP candidate and mentioned him as the runner-up.”
Nwaka noted that the Nigerian Constitution “never contemplated a situation where a political party could emerge as winner in an election; a political party is a platform, a vehicle candidates use to achieve their electoral aspirations. Votes won by a candidate by extension are ascribed to the party which presented him as their candidate – which is why if a wrong candidate, that’s the candidate who did not win in the primaries, was fielded by the party, the Tribunal upon determining who the rightful candidate was will credit him with the votes won by the illegitimate candidate.”
He equally noted that “there exist a plethora of examples to buttress this position. In other words, the declaration must mention the name of the candidate presented by the party. Not to do so implies that the party did not have a candidate and couldn’t/did not participate in the election.”
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