Jega: Court injunctions on electoral litigations disruptive

Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega, yesterday lamented the series of electoral and political litigations that typify the electoral process in Nigeria.

He said while litigations form the integral part of the conduct of election, series of “injuctive and sometimes conflicting orders” have been prolonging the electoral activities, thereby disrupting the process.

The chairman was speaking at the opening of the 2-day international conference on emerging electoral jurisprudence in Africa, organised by the Electoral Institute in collaboration with the Ford foundation.

Professor Jega, represented by the national commissioner, Ishmael Igbani, said electoral jurisprudence had caught the attention of politicians, where they now look beyond ballot boxes, but budget huge amount of money for post-election litigation.

He said “currently, the widely held view is that it is the judiciary rather than the voters that determine electoral outcomes in Nigeria.”

The INEC chairman also disclosed that litigations relating to election dropped significantly in the 2011 elections, where only 733 cases were taken to tribunals against the over 3,000 cases of the 2007 elections.

Director-General of the Electoral Institute, Abubakar Momoh, said the conference was organised against the backdrop of increasing concerns on the courts’ rulings over election matters.