A constitutional lawyer, Mallam Yusuf Olaolu Ali (SAN), has called on the National Assembly to urgently amend Section 136 of the Electoral Act, which empowers election tribunals and courts to declare any candidate as the winner of an election after a petition.
Speaking with journalists in Ilorin, Kwara State, the senior advocate described the current provision as “undemocratic” and a major cause of public distrust in Nigeria’s judiciary. He argued that allowing a few judges to overturn millions of votes undermines the sanctity of the electoral process.
According to him, “We should not give the franchise of five million or 10 million votes to just three people to upturn the results and make the declaration. I think the first thing the National Assembly must do is to amend that section to protect democratic governance and the sanctity of our elections.”
Ali explained that while it is important for aggrieved candidates to have the right to challenge election results, the power to determine the eventual winner should rest with the electorate and not the courts.
“If you bring an election petition to court or tribunal and you succeed, people should go back to the electorate instead of the court declaring such candidate as the winner,” he said. “Most of the negative perceptions about our courts today arise from their involvement in electoral matters.”
The legal luminary expressed concern that the existing legal framework encourages what he termed “arithmetical justice,” where those who came second or third in elections are declared winners by court order.
He said, “Under Section 136, if a candidate is found not qualified or didn’t score the required lawful votes, the court can declare the person who came second as duly elected. That is problematic. We have had several instances where people who didn’t win at the polls were declared governors. This erodes public confidence in both the judiciary and the electoral process.”
Mallam Ali proposed that once a petition succeeds in disqualifying a winner, the appropriate remedy should be a fresh election rather than judicial declaration. “Once you succeed in your election petition, you should go back to the electorate,” he said. “When 25 million people vote, three people should not have the power to set aside their decision and declare someone rejected at the polls as the winner.”
He urged the National Assembly to be courageous in revisiting and amending the controversial provision, insisting that removing such judicial powers would significantly reduce post-election litigations. “You’ll be surprised at the magical thing that would happen,” he said. “The challenges of election petitions would reduce dramatically.”
The Senior Advocate also called for amendments to provisions of the Electoral Act that permit judicial interference in the internal affairs of political parties.
According to him, “If you join a political party and it starts to maltreat you, then you can leave that party and join another one without any court interference. The courts should not be dragged into the internal crises of political parties.”
Ali’s proposals add to the growing calls for a comprehensive review of Nigeria’s electoral laws to strengthen democracy, reduce political litigation, and restore public confidence in both the judiciary and the electoral system.
