Election dispute resolution process across the 36 states

Kimpact Development Initiative, KDI, a civil society organization that advances good governance and democratic rights, has called for the establishment of special courts to handle pre and post-election disputes with the aim of giving room for the court to attend to other litigations.

The Executive Director of KDI, Bukola Idowu, who made the call at the Public Presentation of the post 2023 General Election Dispute Resolution Monitoring Report, in Abuja on Wednesday, maintained that there was influx of election petitions at the tribunals, making it increasingly difficult to separate electoral administration from adjudication at each elections.

Idowu stated that the election and tribunal monitoring effort by KDI was to track and compile the election dispute resolution process across the 36 states and make recommendations for improving the future electoral justice system.

The KDI Executive Director concludes that the data strongly indicates a significantly low success rate in post-election dispute resolution proceedings in courts.

In his goodwill message, the African Regional Director, International Foundation for Electoral Systems, IFES, Clara Cole, expressed the role of the judiciary in the Nigerian Election Dispute Resolution process by monitoring the Election Petitions Tribunals adherence to legal frameworks all the way to the Supreme Courts.

He advocated for collective efforts to strengthen democratic governance in Nigeria.

Speaking earlier, the Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Mahmood Yakubu, represented by Prof. Mohammad Kuna, lamented the huge cost incurred by INEC in defending election litigations.

The INEC chief who refused to mention the amount expended by INEC in defending appeals that arose from the 2023 general elections, told candidates and political parties to embrace alternative dispute resolution mechanisms to sort out their differences.

According to the INEC Boss, the conversation should not be about whether the ballot box or courtroom should be the final determinant of elections as he added that both the ballot and courts are parts of the election process.

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