The two highly respected organizations further chided the Nigerian judiciary for making itself a willing tool to steal the people’s will as expressed through the ballot.
They also observed that the relentless effort and determination by unpatriotic political groups to sabotage electoral integrity has left devastating effects on citizens’ trust in the electoral body and the judiciary.
However, the groups argued that the law court has continued to play a critical role in the determination of political leadership through post-election litigations, underscoring the need to refocus attention on the role of the judiciary in electoral tribunal judgment.
They pointed out that the growing military coup and political instability across West Africa are not unconnected to the effect of electoral fraud, vote rigging, vote as well as judicial distrust.
In a communique issued at the end of a national seminar on “Targeted Electoral Reforms and Enhanced Judicial Integrity in Post-Election Litigations” in Lagos, Executive Director of CISLAC, Auwal Rafsanjani, noted that recently, “Nigeria’s electoral integrity has been compromised, considering the fast-eroding independence and professional ethics by judicial institutions through Tribunal judgments.
“The Law Court has continued to play a critical role in the determination of political leadership through post-election litigations, hence the need to refocus attention on the role of the judiciary in electoral tribunal judgment.
“Despite various legal reforms preceding the 2023 general and off-cycle elections, the conduct and outcomes of the elections have questioned the direction of Nigeria’s democracy.
“The growing military coup and political instability across West Africa are not unconnected to the effect of electoral fraud, vote rigging, vote-trading as well as judicial distrust.
“The emerging judiciary attempts to truncate the victory of Nigerian voters constitutes a serious threat to democratic order, electoral governance, and public trust,” he said.
Rafsanjani further maintained that “Relentless effort and determination by unpatriotic political groups to sabotage electoral integrity has left devastating effects on citizens’ trust in Electoral Body and the judiciary.
The director further argued that “Money politics coupled with unattended party nomination fees and over-commercialization of the electoral process has deprived many decent Nigerians the opportunity to compete favourably in primary elections across political parties, threatening credibility in the electoral process.
While further observing that Nigeria has made significant improvement in electoral legal reform, he said that further reform efforts must be directed towards institutional, process, and procedure strengthening.
He advocated the “refocusing of attention on the broader context of reform like public acceptability, political candidates’ integrity, good governance that reinforce elections as critical elements of democracy.
“Harmonisation of various judicial rulings on electoral outcome across the country to boost advocacy position to exhaustively engage the National Assembly for immediate amendment of the Electoral Act.
“Immediate amendments to Sections 41, 47, and 60 of the Electoral Act to provide adequate legal backing to whistle-blower and public interest litigations before, during, and after the elections,” he said.