AN EXAMINATION OF THE BURDEN, STANDARD OF PROOF AND COMPETENT PARTIES IN ELECTORAL MATTERS UNDER THE ELECTORAL ACT 2022

Abstract

From time immemorial, conducting of Free and fair elections gives incentives to the advancement of democracy in any given country as it gives the citizens the leverage to select leaders of their choice. In Nigeria for instance, elections are likened to a crime prone exercise where electorates right to select their leaders are truncated by a lot out irregularities like violence, vote buying among other vices. This leaves one whose mandate is stolen, to seek remedy at the court of law. The judiciary has always provided a last port of call when the right of the electorates to free and fair has been breached. In Nigeria, like other jurisdictions, election petition is widely known and acceptable legal means of expressing contestant’s dissatisfaction with an election result as declared. Not only may an election result be challenged by petition, flawed processes of nomination of a candidate for an election can also leads to replacement of a wrongly filed candidate with the right one. There is indeed a heavy dose of public policy content involved in election petition and that is also why both the constitution and the Electoral Act have made elaborate provisions to ensure free and fair elections. The burden and standard of proof in relation to election petition without criminal allegation is in tandem with the extent Evidence Act, as election petition is sui generis. This study critically appraised burden and standard of proof in election maters in Nigeria, it used doctrinal research method and analyzed standard of proof in election matters. In the course of this research, we discovered among others that the standard of proof in election petitions where crime is on the balance of probability as stipulated in Section 135(1) of the Evidence Act. We recommended among others that that the Supreme Court when faced with the interpretation of provision of the law as regards election matters should adopt a liberal judicial attitude that allows the aggrieved persons to be heard rather than a strict interpretation that slams the door of the court against the litigants. The research work concluded that in every election circle in Nigeria, the electorates and not really the politicians end up being the victims of electoral fraud through the diabolical imposition of unpopular candidates on the electorates by a few individuals who stand to benefit themselves from the loyalty of such candidates.