What Electoral Acts Say About Audu’s Death

The death of the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship aspirant, Prince Abubakar Audu has caused issues over how the country could proceed with the Kogi state election.

APC candidate with 240,867 votes from the 21 local councils of the state was on his way to a historic third democratic victory after six attempts.

On the other hand, his closest rival, Governor Idris Wada of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) scores 199,514 votes.

Meanwhile, instead of being announced as the winner of the poll, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared on November 22 that the election was questionable, adding that there would be re-run polls in 59 polling stations which have about 49,000 registered voters.

READ ALSO: Unofficial Results For Kogi Governorship Poll

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The Nigeria constitution, the main law of the country, only made remark of death of elected aspirant that is yet to be inaugurated.

The 2010 Electoral acts in section 36, says that:

SECTION 36 - Death of a candidate - (1) If after the time for the delivery of nomination paper and before the commencement of the poll, a nominated candidate dies, the Chief National Electoral Commissioner or the Resident Electoral Commissioner shall, being satisfied of the fact of the death, countermand the poll in which the deceased candidate was to participate and the Commission shall appoint some other convenient date for the election within 14 days.

(2) The list of voters to be used at a postponed election shall be the official voters register, which was to be used if the election had not been postponed.

READ ALSO: Kogi Governorship Election Declared Inconclusive

This is the closest the electoral acts say about the death of Abubakar Audu.

The lawyers have declared that the death of the gubernatorial candidate Audu has exposed a gap in the constitution.

Source: Legit.ng