The said Constitution must have before the conduct of the said primaries clearly outlined the rules and procedure for the democratic election of delegates to vote at the convention, congress or meeting.”

This means that where the Constitution of a party contains individuals that have been excluded from voting at Special Congress, such a party must call for a Congress to amend its constitution to conform to the intendment of section 87 of the Act.

Coterminous to this is whether section 87(7) of the Electoral Act, 2010 is superior to section 222(c) of the 1999 Constitution which has not been amended and which is an existing law. It seems to me that the Constitution of Political Parties has constitutional flavour and when deposited with the Electoral Management Body supersedes the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2010.

This means that unless a Political party amends its Constitution to conform to the provisions of section 87 of the Act, it will be acting ultra vires its own constitution with constitutional flavour. It also seems to me that section 87(8) of the Electoral Act, 2010 that excludes political appointees from voting and being delegates at the Convention of Political parties is also ultra vires.

The only way they can be removed as delegates is through a properly convened meeting of the parties called to amend such constitutions.

Section 87(9) of the Electoral Act, 2010 is also problematic. It allows the Commission to reject the candidate of a political party that does not meet the provisions of section 87 of the Act.

The section does not specify how this can be done and whether the Commission can advise the Party to conduct fresh primaries and whether such can be done within the prescribed time lines.

This is said against the background of the fact that the moment the Electoral Management Body gets involved in the qualification and disqualification of candidates, it gets sucked into the politics of the parties and this diverts its attention from the main task of conducting elections.

Section 87(11) also provides that nothing in section 87 shall empower the Courts to stop the holding of primaries or general election under the Act pending the determination of any suit filed challenging anything relating to section 87 of the Act.

The National Assembly  ought to have known that the provisions of section 87(11) which ousts the jurisdiction of Courts from stopping the holding of primaries or general election under the Act is in conflict with the provisions of section 4(8) of the Constitution which provides that the exercise of legislative powers by the National Assembly or by a House of Assembly  shall be subject to the jurisdiction of Courts of law and of judicial tribunals established by law, and accordingly, the National Assembly or a House of Assembly shall not enact any law that oust or purports to oust the jurisdiction of a court of law or of a judicial tribunal established by law.

Voters Registration and the Submission of List of Candidates Voters’ registration is a key component of the electoral process.

It is the heart and soul of the process and any eligible person not captured during the exercise cannot exercise the democratic franchise of participating in the election. It is on the basis of this that the 1999 Constitution gives the Independent National Electoral Commission the power to arrange and conduct the registration of persons qualified to vote and prepare, maintain and revise the register of voters for purposes of any election under the Constitution.

Section 9 of the Electoral Act, 2010 envisages that Nigeria has a voters register. It enjoins the Commission to compile, maintain and update, on a continuous basis a National Register of Voters which shall contain the names of all persons entitled to vote in any Federal, State or Local Government or Area Council election.

Section 9(5) also states that the registration of voters, updating and revision of the register of voters shall stop not later than 60 days before any election covered by the Act.

However, section 10(4) of the Electoral Act, 2004 provides that when a general election is notified by the Commission (as was done on the 23rd day of November 2010) the current official register of voters certified by the Commission shall be the official voters register for those elections.

By the time table released by the Commission, the registration of voters will commence on January 15 and end on January 29, 2011. Thereafter, the Commission will display the register for claims and objections on the 3rd day of February through the 8th day of February 2011.

However, by the provisions of section 32(1) of the Act, a candidate for an election shall be nominated in writing by such number of persons whose names appear on the register of voters in the constituency as the Commission may prescribe.