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VOL. 10, ISSUE 3 (2024)
Placement of placeholders under the nigerian electoral system: A reflection on its legality or otherwise
Authors
Femi Olorunyomi Esq, Asma’u Muhammad Sulaiman, Jamila Metcho Kasim, Oramunwa Jane Nneka
Abstract
Nigeria operates a constitutional democracy with the implication of
organizing and conducting periodic elections among all the registered Political
Parties into some elective national and state public offices such as the office
of the President and the Governor into which elections are conducted by the
statutory body known as the Independent National Electoral Commission (“The
Commission’’). Under the appropriate laws, the Commission does make guidelines
including the timeframe of when Political Parties must submit the list of names
of their sponsored Candidates well ahead of conducting these elections with
serious implications for non-compliance. The Presidential Candidates of some
Political Parties to beat this deadline as regards submission of the names of
their Running Mates, do put up some temporary names with the Commission tagged Placeholders/Dummy
Mates. This practice intends to later replace those temporarily placed with
their substantive Running Mates. It is the reasons and implications of this
practice that is the focus of this work. This paper therefore, using the
doctrinal methodology, amongst other issues, answers in the negative, the
question of whether a nominated placeholder by a Political Party’s Candidate
can subsequently be substituted by a substantive Running Mate. This is because
the practice of placing a placeholder in the first place is unknown to the
Nigerian electoral laws. The work offers some recommendations for improvement
in this area of law and practice.
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Pages:112-116
How to cite this article:
Femi Olorunyomi Esq, Asma’u Muhammad Sulaiman, Jamila Metcho Kasim, Oramunwa Jane Nneka "Placement of placeholders under the nigerian electoral system: A reflection on its legality or otherwise". International Journal of Law, Vol 10, Issue 3, 2024, Pages 112-116
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