ELECTION PETITION AS A SPECIE OF PUBLIC INTEREST LITIGATION: MAKING A CASE FOR THE REMOVAL OF SOME OF THE ODDS AGAINST PETITIONERS IN ELECTION PETITION PROCEEDINGS IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Economic and social development, political stability and other kindred concepts have their bearing on peace and good governance which twin concepts in turn are engendered by free and fair elections. The problem of governance in the Nigerian state is multifaceted but above all, flawed electoral process is most prominent. Because of the inter-relationship between a flawed election and bad governance, instability and underdevelopment, it becomes of public interest that elections are conducted in strict compliance with the relevant laws, rules and guidelines or manuals made for such purposes. Where the citizen that participates in an election has cause to challenge the conduct or outcome of such election as flawed, he should be given adequate facility to ventilate his claims so that the court or tribunal would determine in fairness whether there is merit in his claim, bearing in mind that the petitioner is not the only one that would be affected by the outcome of the adjudication of his petition. This paper examined the public interest nature of election petition proceedings in Nigeria, the several odds stacked against petitioners in election petition proceedings in Nigeria and ended up in making a case for the removal of many of such odds to make proof of election petitions possible in the spirit of the public interest nature of election disputes.