The much-awaited appeal court judgement on the national dele
gates crisis arising from the Peoples Democratic Party. PDP, ad-hoc delegate election finally came on Monday but left much to be desired.ÂThis report by Tony Okonigene and Oluwabamidele Elempe for turhtlive.net takes a critical look at the pronouncement of the appallate court, and its implications on both contending parties vis-a-vis the perspective of the electoral rules as well as the constitution of the PDP.
At the ruling today on the Federal High Court Abuja judgment, the recognized Adhoc delegates produced by the Legacy PDP, the Appeal Court ruled the issue of delegates of a party is a domestic affair of the party, though copies of the judgment are yet to be made public for proper details to be ascertained.
The Appeal Court unlike the Federal High Court did not make a specific pronouncement as to who are the authentic delegates of the Edo PDP thereby leaving the responsibility for the Supreme Court to determine
Recall that the Appeal Court had earlier fixed judgment for the case on Friday 22nd July 2022 before shifting it to Monday 25th July 2022 by 11 am. The Court later moved it to 3 pm giving room for speculations that the judges were under external pressure.
However, some legal practitioners said that the judgment was delivered out of time as the allowed 60 days limit by law expired  Sunday 24th July 2022″.
The Appeal Court was expected to have delivered its judgment within 60days.
All these will be laid to rest by the Supreme Court before the 28th of September, 2022 which is the deadline for INEC to publish the final lists of all the candidates of the political parties.
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In any case, another school of thought believed that the appeal court erred in the judgment which is neither here nor there;
The new Electoral Act gives INEC the ability to monitor ALL congresses and elections, it is no longer a full-time party affair.
The legitimacy of any of these conducts rests on the Commission.
As needed by law, the Commission shall monitor the primaries of each political party that provides the required legal notice in line with Sections 82 (1) and (5) of the Electoral Act,”
The statement reads:
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Failure of a political party to notify the Commission of any convention or congress convened for the purpose of nominating candidates for any of the elective offices as specified in the Act shall render the convention or congress invalid.
Their candidates for the 1,491 constituencies for which elections will be conducted in 2023 must emerge from democratic, transparent and valid primaries, in line with the provisions of Sections 29 and 84 of the Electoral Act, 2022.
Where a political party fails to comply with the provisions of the Act in the conduct of its primaries, its candidate shall not be included in the election for the particular position in the issue.
In view of these perspectives, the appeal court’s judgment today authenticates the position already taken by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, which had already recognized the candidates that emerged from the primaries conducted by the faction loyal to the National Vice Chairman of the PDP, Chief Dan Orbih, as directed by an Abuja high court.
It is however worthy of mention that the judgment of the appellate court of today, has no legal binding on the position already taken by the electoral body on who the actual candidates are in the Edo State PDP.