PEPT: CUPP Wants Electoral Act Amended To Ensure Conclusion Of Litigation Before Swearing-in
Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) has called on the National Assembly and all election stakeholders in the country to collaborate to ensure that the Electoral Act is amended to make it mandatory for all election litigations to be concluded before winners in all elections in the country were sworn into office.
The Coalition made the call on Thursday in a statement signed by its National Co-Spokesperson, Comrade Mark Adebayo, aftermath of the judgment of the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC), noting that the scales of justice may never be seen to be balanced for as long as the country operates “a system that allows people to be sworn into office before the cases that affect their election are done with in Court.”
CUPP posited that it was incumbent and urgent assignment on the part of the National Assembly, Civil Society and all political stakeholders to ensure that such anomaly was rectified pronto, adding that it was not only anomalous but clearly untenable for a party to a dispute to be enjoying the perks of an office still in legal contention while the other party was left hanging in a limbo.
“The scales of justice may never be seen to be balanced for as long as we operate a system that allows people to be sworn into office before the cases that affect their election are done with in Court.
“It is an incumbent and urgent assignment on the part of the National Assembly, Civil Society and all political stakeholders to ensure that this anomaly is rectified pronto.
“It is not only anomalous but clearly untenable for a party to a dispute to be enjoying the perks of an office still in legal contention while the other party is left hanging in a limbo,” CUPP said.
According to the Coalition, it is anathematic to reason that such fundamental lacuna in the cause of justice subsists in the country’s electoral and constitutional framework, asserting that the development “erodes trust in the system and the judiciary and allows for a free reign of dangerous speculations and voter apathy.”
“It behoves on all of us who are stakeholders in Nigeria’s political space to ensure that this status quo doesn’t survive in our laws till the next cycle of general elections.
“We must work relentlessly together to amend this major ailment in our laws to make our democracy not only sustainable but to also be free, fair and credible.
‘”We still have a lot of work to do reworking our Electoral Laws to increase citizen confidence in the process and avoid the manipulation of the loopholes in our laws,” CUPP stated.
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