*87 -* (8) No political appointee at any level shall be a voting delegate
at the Convention or Congress of any political party for the purpose of
nomination of candidates for any election......
*134*-(1) "(1) An election petition shall be filed within 21 days after the
date of the declaration of results of the elections;
(2) An election tribunal shall deliver its judgment in writing within
*180*days from the date of the filing of the petition;
(3) An appeal from a decision of an election tribunal or court shall be
heard and disposed of within *90* days from the date of the delivery of
judgment of the tribunal;
UNQUOTE
Idowu:
Please cool down your own ultra-partisanship and see what others may also be
seeing with respect to these late-hour amendments by the Executive.
The only reason why an amendment was being sought by anybody to the new
Electoral Law 2010 was with respect to the extension for registration
demanded by INEC. Neither INEC or any political party - including PDP
hierarchy - sought for any amendment of the section concerning Nomination of
Candidates by Parties (Section 87) - so why did the Executive seek that
amendment (eg deletion of Section 87(8)) except to give advantage to
executive incumbents whose ability to make political appointments is almost
untramelled? Could the discussion of that not unnecessarily delay the
discussion of the more important amendments? That is the concern, in
view the fact that we know that the National Assembly will still have to
debate the amendments.
If there is to be an amendment to Section 8, it should read:
QUOTE
*87 -* (8) No political appointee at any level shall be a voting delegate
at the Convention or Congress of any political party for the purpose of
nomination of candidates for any election, unlesss such a political
appointee is otherwise democratically elected as clearly outlined in the
party's constitution and rules the procedure for the democratic election of
delegates to vote at the convention, congress or meeting.
UNQUOTE
This would mean that the political appointees can still offer themselves up
for election as delegates - but they would NOT be automatic delegates
ex-officio.
Furthermore, instead of completely deleting Section 134 (*Time for
presenting Election Petition)* and not suggesting any new language -
which would throw the petition and appeal process into complete chaos
- reducing the days within which to file to 10 days (for example) and within
which to give a preliminary judgment to (say 20 days) from filing,
and the appeal process to 15 days (at least for 2011), then stipulating that
no governor or legislator should be installed until the appeal process is
disposed of, will limit the problem at hand - at least for 2011.
Vigilance is the price of liberty.
And there you have it.
Bolaji Aluko
--------
QUOTE
*Nomination of Candidates by Parties*
*87*-(1) A political party seeking to nominate candidates for elections
under this Act shall hold primaries for aspirants to all elective positions
--
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