New Electoral Act orders fresh election where candidate who wins is unqualified

Election petition tribunals and courts in the country will have to order for a fresh election into any elective office where the candidate who is declared winner was not qualified to contest the election or the election is marred by irregularities and non-compliance with the provisions of the law.

This is according to the newly passed Electoral Act 2010 amendment bill.

Both Senate and House of Representatives have yesterday approved the report of the conference committee which harmonized areas of differences in the bills passed by the two chambers.

Amendment to section 140 subsection 2 of the extant law that was passed by the MPs reads: “Where an election tribunal or court nullifies an election on the ground that the person who obtained the highest votes at the election was not qualified to contest the election, or that the election was marred by substantial irregularities or non-compliance with the provisions of this Act, the election tribunal or court shall not declare the person with the second highest votes or any other person as elected, but shall order a fresh election.”

The provisions in the old law read: “Where an election tribunal or court nullifies an election on the ground that the person who obtained the highest votes at the election was not qualified to contest the election, the election tribunal or court shall not declare the person with the second highest votes as elected, but shall order a fresh election.”

This means that candidates who are not qualified to contest election but contest and win can still participate in the re-run election even as the courts can use the new clause to refuse to declare the person who scored the second highest votes cast at the election winner.

The newly introduced clause is already taken care of in subsection 3 of the existing law which reads thus: “If the tribunal or the court determines that a candidate who was returned as elected was not validly elected on the ground that he did not score the majority of valid votes cast at the election, the election tribunal or the court, as the case may be, shall declare as elected the candidate who scored the highest number of valid votes cast at the election and satisfied the requirements of the Constitution and this Act.”

The amended bill is expected to be transmitted to President Goodluck Jonathan for his assent.

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