2023: Court orders INEC to recognize Labour Party candidates in 24 states

Yesterday, a Federal High Court in Abuja issued an order directing the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to accept the Labour Party’s (LP) nomination of candidates in 24 federation states for the general elections of 2023.

The electoral body must accept the list of candidates from the 24 states manually or electronically, according to the court’s order.

In his rulings on 24 separate lawsuits brought before him by LP, Justice Inyang Edem Ekwo found that INEC had broken Sections 31, 33, and 36 of the Electoral Act 2022 when it disqualified the party’s candidates in the affected states due to the nomination portal’s malfunction.

Kwara, Plateau, Nasarawa, Lagos, Kaduna, Oyo, Benue, Bauchi, Ebonyi, Ekiti, Katsina, Bayelsa, and Cross River States are among the 24 states impacted by the court order.

The party had substitute nominations for its candidates who withdrew from the 2023 general elections in the affected states in November of last year.

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The party’s National Chairman and National Secretary informed INEC of the withdrawals and announced October 27 as the date for the replacement nomination primary elections.

However, when it came time to upload the names of the new candidates, INEC claimed that its nomination portal was broken and refused to manually accept the candidates’ list, which led to the 24 legal actions.

Ekwo asserted the party’s evidence was credible and went on to give it probative value in letters exchanged with INEC regarding the nomination.

The judge ruled that the party could not suffer the effects of a malfunctioning electronic nomination portal.

Ekwo concurred with the party that INEC could not reject any party’s nomination or submission of a candidate list until 90 days before the general elections.

According to the judge, the Labour Party had more than 90 days before the 2023 general elections to submit its list of candidates in the 24 states, so it was within the legal deadline.

After the Labour Party’s electronic nomination portal developed problems, Justice Ekwo ruled that INEC was required to manually accept the list of candidates from the party.

As a result, the judge ordered INEC to immediately open its website so that Labour Party could submit its list of candidates or manually accept it.