'Resolving disputes too slow'
2008-11-12 16:05
Lagos - Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua has urged the Senate to review the country's electoral laws to allow for quicker resolution of election disputes, his office said on Wednesday.
Yar'Adua, whose election in April 2007 is still being challenged by the opposition in the Supreme Court, made the call on Tuesday in an address to a Senate retreat in the northern city of Kano.
He said the retreat is "timely especially bearing in mind the need to urgently reform our electoral system".
"I am not aware of any other country for example where litigations arising from elections drag on for years after presumed winners have been sworn in," he said.
Yar'Adua said while the electoral law puts a ceiling on the period within which electoral petitions must be filed, the same law sets no time limit for the conclusion of such cases.
"It is reasonable to expect that such litigations should be concluded before elected officials are inaugurated," he said, inviting the senators to "take a critical look at the relevant laws in order to amend them accordingly".
Many vote-related cases are still pending in the Nigerian courts more than 18 months after the polls.
Both local and international observers said Nigeria's 2007 elections - presidential, legislative and state governorship - were marred by serious fraud nationwide.
The elections of around a dozen governors, all from the ruling People's Democratic Party, have been nullified, but some of them were returned to office after fresh polls.
A lower court in February upheld the April 2007 election that brought Yar'Adua to power, but former military ruler General Muhammadu Buhari and former vice president Atiku Abubakar want the Supreme Court to void the election on the grounds it was marred by fraud and irregularities.
In August 2007 Yar'Adua set up a committee to reform the electoral system but it has yet to complete its work despite the expiration of its 12-month mandate.
Yar'Adua himself has come in for a lot of criticism over the slowness with which he is implementing the reforms he announced.