Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, has said it is the duty of the
\nBuhari administration to guarantee free and fair elections in the country
\nas he received, on behalf of the federal government, the report of the
\nEuropean Union Observer Mission to the 2015 general elections in the
\ncountry.<\/p>\n
A delegation of the EU led by the Chief Observer, Mr. Santiago Fisas,
\nsubmitted the report to him earlier today at the presidential villa.<\/p>\n
According to the Vice President, \u201cit is our duty to ensure that the
\nelectoral system guarantees free and fair elections, where the opposition
\ncan win if voted for by the people.\u201d<\/p>\n
While thanking the EU for participating actively throughout the electoral
\nprocess of the country before, during and after the polls, and making
\nuseful recommendations that could improve the process, he gave the
\nassurance that the Federal Government would study and consider the
\nrecommendations as soon as possible.<\/p>\n
He said that while some of the recommendations require action by the
\nNational Assembly, he assured the delegation that the executive arm of
\ngovernment would consider the ones within its powers to implement.<\/p>\n
Commenting on some of the recommendations of the EU Observer Mission,
\nProf. Osinbajo noted that the recommendation on independent candidacy was
\ndeliberated upon by the National Assembly and rejected prior to the 2015
\npolls but added that the issue could be re-opened following the
\nrecommendation by the EU.<\/p>\n
He recalled that he had been active in election litigations and some of
\nthe EU recommendations on time limits for electoral petitions had been of
\nconcern, saying specifically that regarding the timing \u201cthere are huge
\nquestions around that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Vice President explained that the response of the National Assembly
\nregarding the time limits was to legislate that election petitions be
\ncompleted within 180 days.<\/p>\n
“The reaction of the National Assembly then was to fix 180 days but
\ngetting evidence alone can take six months,\u2019\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n
According to Osinbajo, a lawyer who had been active in election petitions
\nbefore the 2015 polls, of the many petitions he argued, the cases in Osun
\nand Ekiti States were the defining ones.<\/p>\n
“I litigated for three and half years before the mandate for the current
\ngovernor of Osun was restored and for almost two and half years in Ekiti
\nbefore the former governor, now a ministerial nominee, could regain his
\nmandate.\u201d<\/p>\n
The EU observer team in its report recommended among others that the
\nIndependent National Electoral Commission should be strengthened to tackle
\ncomplex electoral challenges and that a more inclusive parliamentary
\nmechanism for cross-party involvement in the selection and approval of the
\nINEC Chairperson and National Commissioners be adopted.<\/p>\n
Other members of the delegation included the EU Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr.
\nMichel Arrion, Deputy Head of EU Mission, Mr. Richard Young and Pauline
\nTorehall, EU Mission Head of Political Section.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, has said it is the duty of the Buhari administration to guarantee free and fair elections in the country as he received, on behalf…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42871,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n