Osun election: INEC’s decision more political than legal – Senior lawyer

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Ntufam Mba Ekpezu Ukweni SAN, has
averred that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was
not right in declaring Saturday's gubernatorial election in Osun State
inconclusive.

Reacting to the electoral umpire's declaration, the senior lawyer told
DAILY POST on Monday that, "the results of the just-concluded election
showed that APC polled 254,345 while PDP polled 254,698.

"This ipso facto means the candidate of the People Democratic Party
(PDP) polled the majority votes. The difference therefore is 353. INEC
now says in as much as the difference between the cancelled votes
which is over 3000 is more than the difference – 353, then he cannot
declare the candidate with highest number of votes as the winner."

"Was INEC right?" he asked and replied thus: "I will answer this
question by relying on section 69 of the Electoral Act 2010. It
provides;

"In an election to the office of the President or Governor whether or
not contested and in any contested election to the other elective
office, the result shall be ascertained by counting the votes cast by
each candidate and subject to the provisions of sections 133, 134 and
179 of the Constitution, the candidate that receives the highest
number of votes shall be declared elected by the appropriate Returning
Officer."

"Section 179 of the 1999 Constitution applicable to the instant case
and the PDP candidate has satisfied the provision of 1/4 of all the
votes cast in each of at least 2/3 of all the local government areas
in the state.

"Therefore the decision of the INEC is not grounded in law. They
should as a matter of urgency declare the candidate with the highest
number of votes elected."

Acknowledging that INEC declared the Osun governorship election as
inconclusive because the difference in votes is less than the number
of cancelled votes, Ukweni said, "they are probably relying on their
2015 guidelines which appears contrary to Constitutional provisions on
this matter. It may make sense if the votes involved are in relation
to centres were elections were not held due to no fault of the voters.

"However, were elections were held and votes are cancelled, they
remain cancelled? They ought not to form part of the counting process
and should not influence the outcome of the elections for any reason
whatsoever.

"In Oshiomhole vs Osunbor & ords, cancelled vote were added to PDP's
scores. All the courts held that cancelled votes have no role to play
in an election. The votes were deducted and Oshomhole was declared
winner of the election.

"Why is INEC giving so much priority to cancelled votes on this
occasion? I can't fathom it. This may be more political than legal.
Section 179 talks about cast votes. Cancelled votes were cast votes
before they were cancelled.

"So cancelled votes have to be treated like, invalid votes, rejected
votes as well. They've gone through the process of electioneering and
have been cancelled. These are my thoughts," he stated.