Following a court ruling on Tuesday nullifying the candidature of Mr Tony Nwoye as the PDP candidate for the November 16 Anambra state governorship election and upholding Nicholas Ukachukwu as the candidate, reactions from legal team of the PDP led by J-K Gadzama insist that the Party has duly nominated its governorship candidate in line with the electoral act.
In his letter addressed to the Chairman of INEC, he stated, “It is worthy of note that this judgment has come exactly on the deadline for the submission of candidates’ names to your esteemed Commission by political parties. The Peoples’ Democratic Party had since met up with this deadline, by submitting the name of its candidate, Hon. Tony Nwoye to your Commission, as well as his duly completed nomination forms acknowledged by the Commission.
In addition, the party has filed a Notice of Appeal against the said judgment as well as a Motion for Stay of Execution at the Court of Appeal. By this very fact, all matters relating to this judgment are meant to be stayed. In other words, the status quo must be maintained pending the Appeal”.
He also stated emphatically that,
“Based on the outcome of the primaries conducted by the party, it issued a certificate of return to Hon. Tony Nwoye and submitted his name to the Commission in respect of the Anambra State Governorship Election. The effect in law is that Nicholas Ukachukwu is bound by the list wherein the name of Hon. Tony Nwoye was submitted and the party cannot retract that list or substitute the name of Hon. Tony Nwoye with that of Nicholas Ukachukwu unless Hon. Tony Nwoye withdraws his candidature or dies. This is the purport of sections 31(1), 33 and 35 of the Electoral Act 2010 (As Amended) which read thus:
“31(1) Every political party shall not later than 60 days before the date appointed for a general election under the provisions of this Act, submit to the Commission in the prescribed forms the list of the candidates the Party proposes to sponsor at the elections. Provided that the Commission shall not reject or disqualify candidates for any reason whatsoever.
33. A Political Party shall not be allowed to change or substitute its candidate whose name has been submitted pursuant to Section 31 of this of this Act, except in the case of death or withdrawal by the candidate.
35. A candidate may withdraw his candidature by notice in writing signed by him and delivered by himself to the Political party that nominated him for the election and the political party shall convey such withdrawal to the Commission and which shall only be allowed not later than 45 days to the election.”
As can be seen by all and sundry, Hon. Tony Nwoye is still very much alive and has not withdrawn his candidacy for the said elections.
PDP’s submission of his name is therefore, final unless any of the two instances cited above occurs.”
In other words, once a candidate has been nominated by his party and his name submitted to the Commission that is the end of the issue of the nomination of the candidate unless he withdraws or dies. Not even the court can stop such nomination.
