Election petitions proceedings are sui generis, that is in a class of their own. Quite frankly, by their nature, they are a distinct and completely isolated events which may not fall within the ordinary and general spectrum of the usual civil proceedings. As a result of its peculiar nature, specific guidelines are laid down in order to effectively direct and promote the democratic wellbeing of the Nigerian society.
The controversial nature of our electoral events and the subsequent judicial pronouncements thereon has made it nearly impossible for us sitting in our homes not to tingle our brains out in trying to make sense of what just happened. There is usually this feeling by many, especially losers in election litigation matters that they have been cheated, ‘robbed’ is the usual word they employ. It is not always so, but because there is so much lack of knowledge of electoral laws and principles by the actors – candidates and their parties – they most of the time attribute their loss to manipulation of one form or the other.
This is what this discourse seeks to eradicate or reduce to the barest unavoidable minimum by playing up and answering some of these brain tingling and mind bothering questions in a clear, simple and comfortable way. This Helar Notes on the Nigerian Electoral Law has been prepared with a view to providing simple answers and solutions to those intriguing questions about election petition decisions and judgments, and to thereby give some sense of meaning to these the confusion and massive mess that is experienced every four years in Nigeria, sometimes genuinely so, but most of the time, as a result of the toxic mixture of wild and uncouth politics and law.