The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has been directed to accept the nominations of candidates of the Labour Party (LP) in 24 states of the Federation ahead of the general elections in 2023 by Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court in Abuja.
In his ruling, Justice Ekwo found INEC in violation of Sections 31, 33, and 36 of the Electoral Act 2022 when it rejected the LP candidates in the affected states due to the nomination portal’s malfunction. As a result, the judge mandated that INEC accept the candidate list, either manually or electronically, through its nomination portal.
Kwara, Plateau, Nasarawa, Lagos, Kaduna, Oyo, Benue, Bauchi, Ebonyi, and Ekiti states are among the 24 states impacted by the court judgement.
The remaining states include, among others, those of Katsina, Bayelsa, Niger, Rivers, Sokoto, Akwa Ibom, Gombe, Borno, Osun, Adamawa, and Cross River.
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The Labour Party undertook a replacement nomination process for its candidates who withdrew from the 2023 general elections in the impacted states in November. The party’s National Chairman and National Secretary informed INEC of the withdrawals and the date of the replacement nomination primary elections on October 27, 2022.
However, when it came time to upload the names of the new candidates, INEC said that its nomination system was broken and refused to accept the list of candidates that had been physically submitted while pushing the 24 legal lawsuits.
Justice Ekwo continued by saying that the Labour Party’s testimony in the nomination dispute through correspondence with INEC was trustworthy and went on to give it probative value.
The Judge ruled that the Labour Party cannot suffer the effects of an electronic nomination system that isn’t working.
Justice Ekwo concurred with the Labour Party that INEC could not reject a party’s candidate nomination or list submission until 90 days before the general elections.
According to the judge, the Labour Party had more than 90 days before the 2023 general elections to submit a list of its candidates in the 24 States, therefore it was within the legal deadline.
The judge subsequently ordered INEC to open its website so that the Labour Party could submit its list of candidates or immediately accept the same for the 2023 general elections. The judge also held that INEC was required to manually accept the Labour Party’s candidates list if its electronic nomination portal proved to be unreliable.
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