In Nigeria/Ghana 2000 CAF AFCON final in Lagos, after the 2-2 draw between Cameroon and Nigeria at stoppage and extra time, a penalty was played to determine the winner. You would recall that the penalty played by Victor Ikpeba was actually a goal,because it crossed the goal-line before bouncing back, but the referee overruled it. Whether he sees it or not was not the issue, Cameroon took the day. In an election any little salient point goes into consideration during election tribunal, no matter how small. In the post-match analysis and commentary by the match commissioner, the outcome of the match didn't change, even though CAF admitted the referee error in judgment. If it were to be an election the Tribunal panel won't overlook that.
The truth is- Election is not like a football match. Election is a process and not an event like a football match. It is the process of choosing a leader, members of parliament, councillors,or other representatives by popular vote. It's like you are equating election to mere casting of vote. Even at that, you need to explore the grounds for which an Election tribunal panel can upturn the outcome of an election result. If an election is to be adjudged free and fair, all elements of doubt should be ruled out. Are you saying it's a fair election if I bring hooligans (or by whatever means) to your electoral stronghold to disrupt the process and these units are cancelled? The outcome of the election can only be sufficient to declare a winner if the total possible votes (number of voters) from the disrupted Polling Units cannot upturn the margin by which I am leading you.
In addition, INVALID VOTES are votes wrongfully thumbprinted among the ballot papers in the ballot box. This may arise from cases like multiple thumbprint for 2political parties, thumbprints across the boundary of 2 parties, thumbprint for non-contesting party, no thumbprint at all etc. An election stands to be cancelled in a polling unit, Registration Area, local government etc whenever there is a reasonable believe that an abnormality which can considerably affect the outcome of the election has taken place. In this instance, all ballot papers become spoilt, whether casted or not.
Bola
❦ When you give somebody responsibility beyond his capability, you render him incapacitated. ❦
--http://massliteracy.blogspot.com/2013/11/inconclusiveness-inec-erred-in-fact-and.html
'What the INEC officials decided is unreasonable in law and in fact because, for example, if there is a football match between Nigeria and Mexico at the World Cup and Nigeria is leading by 10 goals to 5, no reasonable umpire will rule that the result is inconclusive and call for extra time just because six goals were disallowed during the match. As everyone knows, disallowed goals are in fact and under football rules considered to be no goals. The same applies to votes cancelled or deemed invalid in an election: they do not count and the constitution made that clear by underscoring that what counts are valid votes.'Follow the link above to read on and feel free to leave a comment.Biko
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