Mimiko faults rerun as only option to redress flawed polls

GOVERNOR Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State has condemned a clause in the 2010 Electoral Act that recommends only the option of re-run to resolve election petitions where allegations of flawed elections have been confirmed by the judiciary. He said the new law “will truncate the wish of the people and destroy the essence of democracy”.

Mimiko, a victim of rigged election who went through a 22-month litigation to regain his mandate from a “disadvantaged position”, while speaking in Akure, Ondo State capital yesterday, however, hoped that something would be done to correct the situation.

The new Act, in what some analysts believed was inserted to protect the beneficiary of a rigged election, has removed the power of the courts to give a declarative judgment that will automatically return a plaintiff that has a successful petition.

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole, during a campaign rally in Akure last month, told a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) gathering that the party had found a solution to the problem of its loss of states to the opposition through judicial pronouncement.

He told the crowd that “what happened here in Ondo State where we lost the governorship and in some other states cannot happen again. We have found a way around it. Now the case will be resolved only through a re-run election. And in that case, the PDP will win again and again”.

Senator Bode Olajumoke, who represents Ondo-North at the upper legislative chamber last week, threw more light on why the National Assembly took that decision.

He said: “It is an indictment of the judiciary, which has been found wanting in the handling of electoral litigations. We have lost confidence in the system particularly as new revelations of underhand dealings are coming to the public”.

But Mimiko, who warned politicians not to subject the judicial institution to ridicule because of party politics and selfishness, said the new Act has created an unacceptable situation that is definitely against the growth of the country’s democracy.

According to him, “by the Act, an unfortunate situation of the possibility of the rigger perpetrating his illegal act, again and again has been created. The same system that he employed to truncate the wish of the people can be used over and over again to the detriment of the polity.

“It can also perpetrate illegality ad infinitum because the beneficiary of a flawed election is given an opportunity to continue indefinitely in office. This is wrong and should not be allowed to stand on the way of our democracy”.

Mimiko, who expressed optimism that the Act cannot pass constitutional test, said: “I have read a lot of comments and opinions about the new rule and have spoken to some senior lawyers who told me that the Legislature has no power to reduce the functions of the judiciary”.