Electoral Justice in Kenya and Nigeria

Concerning the annulment of election results by Nigerian courts: in 2007, the several questionable returns made by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) were challenged in the courts. In the dissenting judgment it was found that the ballot papers used by the INEC were not marked and serialized as stipulated by law. In 2011, the results of the elections of not less 5 governors were annulled by the courts which ordered fresh elections in the affected states. Many legislators also lost their seats on grounds of electoral malfeasance. The INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmoud Yakubu has just disclosed that the courts including the Supreme Court have nullified the results of 117 elected officials who emerged in 2015 general elections due to illegal party primaries or fraudulent election results. As no democratic country in the world has ever recorded a greater number of annulments of election results it is totally misleading to give the highly erroneous impression that Nigerian judges have always upheld the results of fraudulent elections.