The Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal in a legal tussle between President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress and his opponent, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party will deliver its judgement on September 13, 2019.
The initial date of September 15 is no longer realistic because it is a Sunday. A source at the court told LEADERSHIP last night that the judgement will be delivered on September 13.
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Section 134 (1) to (3) of the Electoral Act provides that an election petition should be filed, heard and determined within 180 days.
The section was inserted into the Electoral Act following a situation where election petitions took up to four years before being resolved, leading to the disruption of the political process in the country.
According to the source,
‘’the petition of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate in the February 23 presidential election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and his party, will definitely be decided before September 15.
‘’They (the tribunal) cannot go beyond that date in deciding the petition one way or the other because by law, that is how far they can go in the case. They can’t sit beyond that day. They are not permitted to do so by law. The 180 days stipulated by the law will elapse that day,’’ he said.
www.sojworldnews.com (c) August 26, 2019
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