Akintola John Oluwasegun / Danjuma Gwatana Shigaba / Oyero Anthony Oyewole
Usually, when elections are conducted, the announcement of the result should be made after all the voting processes have been concluded, and the winner declared. However, in recent years, starting from the November 21st, 2015 governorship election in Kogi State, anew theme came to the fore in Nigeria’s electoral process -that of an inconclusive election. That is to say when the margin of win between the two leading candidates is less than the ballots canceled, the election will be declared inconclusive. This new lexicon became alarming during the 9th March 2019 governorship election when six governorship and a few national assembly elections were declared inconclusive. Yet, there are some elections that ought to have been declared inconclusive but were not. The interesting thing about this new theme in Nigeria’s electoral process is that the Supreme Court has given its validity in Faleke Vs INEC. The issue of inconclusive election is anchored on sections 26and 53(2) of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended).
