Electoral Act

Section 87 (1), (4) (c) and (9) of the Electoral Act, 2010 (as amended) provides: 87. (1) A political party seeking to nominate candidates for elections under this Act shall hold primaries for aspirants to all elective positions, (4) A political party that adopts the system of indirect primaries for the choice of its candidates shall adopt the procedure outlined below: (c) in the case of nomination to the position of a candidate to the Senate House of Representatives and State House of Assembly, a political party shall, where it intends to sponsor candidates: (i) hold special congresses in the Senatorial District, Federal Constituency and the State Assembly Constituency respectively, with delegates voting for each of the aspirants in designated centre on specific dates; and (ii) the aspirant with the highest number of votes at the end of the voting shall be declared the winner of the primaries of the party and the aspirants name shall be forwarded to the commission as the candidate of the party. (9) Notwithstanding the provisions of this Act or Rules of a political party, an aspirant who complains that any of the provisions of this Act and the guidelines of a political party has not been complied with in the selection or nomination of a candidate of a political party for election, may apply to the Federal High Court or the High Court of a State or FCT, for redress. It has been held in a plethora of decisions of this Court that the Jurisdiction of a Court to entertain a complaint under Section 87 (9) of the Electoral Act falls within a very narrow compass. The complainant must be an aspirant who participated in the primary and his complaint must relate to non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act or the guidelines of the political party. see: Uwazurike vs Nwachukwu (2013) 3 NWLR (Pt.1342) 503 @ 526 E-G; PDP vs Sylva (2012) 13 NWLR (Pt. 1316) 85 @ 148 C-D; 149 A-E; Lado vs C.P.C. (2012) All FWLR (Pt. 607) 598 @ 622-623 F-H; APGA vs Anyanwu (2014) 2 SC...