By Isaac Asabor
If there is a particular day in the political history of Kogi State that the people will never forget in a haste and surely wish away with a mere wave of the hands, it is unarguably November 21, 2015. It was a day that necessitated the call for the amendment of the electoral act, particularly as the gubernatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Abubakar Audu, at the time suddenly died. Without a doubt, his death triggered a legal battle regarding the outcome of the election.
The tussle seemed complicated then as Mr. Audu was leading his closest challenger and incumbent governor, Idris Wada of the Peoples Democratic Party, by 41,353 votes. To resolve the somewhat complicated issue then, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), declared the election inconclusive as possible votes from the 91 canceled polling units (49,953) were higher than the margin between the two leading candidates.
As gathered from political history and news reportages, Mr. Audu would have emerged as the winner of the elections held in the 91 polling units as the PDP candidate at the time would have needed a 100 percent turnout and about all the votes for his party to emerge the victor. However, before he could celebrate his potential victory, the APC candidate died, throwing the country into a unique constitutional crisis.
The legal complication generated therefrom unarguably kept the lawmakers busy so much that December 2016 saw the Senate remove the controversy surrounding who succeeds a governorship or presidential candidate who dies before the announcement of the result of an election.
The new bill provides for the conduct of a fresh primary within 14 days to choose a new candidate. The bill, which is the sixth amendment to the 2010 Electoral Act, also provides that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) shall suspend the conduct of a new election for 21 days when the death of a candidate is recorded after the commencement of an election and before the announcement of result.
For the sake of clarity, it is expedient to recall in this context that on 25th February 2022 President Muhammadu Buhari signed the 2022 Electoral Act Amendment Bill into law, after months of withholding assent.1 The 2022 Electoral Act (“the new Act”) repeals Electoral Act No. 6, 2010 (“the former Act”). In fact, with current development, particularly as relating to Ikonne’s death, there is no denying the fact that innovations to the regulation of Federal, State, and Area Council elections in Nigeria has being brought into Nigeria’s electoral space, and as Nigeria approaches its 2023 general elections, the enactment of this law has come at the right time.
Pragmatically leveraging on the provisions that are inherent in the amended electoral act, the INEC has urged the Abia State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to conduct a fresh primary within 14 days following the death of its gubernatorial candidate, Eleazar Uchenna Ikonne in the early hours of yesterday at the National Hospital, Abuja.
It is also worthy to note in this context that INEC’s National Commissioner and Chairman Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, told Journalists that the party still has a window of 14 days to conduct a fresh primary.
He said: “If the candidate dies when polls have commenced, Section 34(3) (b) of the Act provides that the running mate shall continue with the election and nominate a new running mate.”
The commission further warned that should the PDP fail to conduct a fresh primary within 14 days of the death of the candidate, it would be assumed that it would not have a candidate in the election.
“Section 33 of the Electoral Act, 2022 is clear, unambiguous, and unequivocal that a political party shall not be allowed to change or substitute its candidate whose name has been submitted to the commission under Section 29 of the Electoral Act except in the case of death or withdrawal,” Okoye said.
At this juncture, it will be recalled that Konne’s death was announced by his first son, Chikezie Uche, in a statement he posted on the Facebook page of Abia Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Eze Chikamnayo, yesterday.
According to the son, he was recovering after taking treatment in the United Kingdom but relapsed a few days ago, leading to multiple cardiac arrests for which he didn’t recover.
He said further details and arrangements would be made known to the public after deliberations and meetings are made within the family.
