Canvassing for votes by candidates is a fundamental function of a political party. When party primaries conclude, the candidate who emerges from valid primaries becomes the party’s official candidate. The candidate may then canvas for votes, and the party can also do so.
Importantly, when do election campaigns begin, and when can a candidate or party be said to be canvassing for votes? Can billboards from third parties praising an individual who has not participated in primaries and has not been nominated be categorised as canvassing for votes?
Do endorsements by party organs or regional chapters for someone who has not gone through primaries count as campaigning under the law? When do campaigns officially start? Is there a legal gap that parties, individuals, and third parties are exploiting during unofficial campaign periods?
These are pressing issues that will likely dominate politics for some time. Section 229 of the Constitution defines a “political party” as any association engaged in activities including canvassing for votes to support a candidate for President, Vice-President, Governor, Deputy Governor, or legislative or local government office.
Conversely, section 221 states that no association other than a political party shall canvass for votes or contribute to election funds or expenses for any candidate. The opposite implication is that a political party cannot truly canvass for votes for someone who is not an official candidate.
Regardless of terminology, all individuals actively seeking office are merely aspirants. Coalitions, alignments, realignments, and endorsements are irrelevant for this purpose. The Electoral Act defines an “aspirant” as someone seeking to contest an election, while a “candidate” is someone who has received a party’s nomination to run for office.
These distinctions are essential to understanding when a party or individual is engaging in campaigning or mere grandstanding. The constitution and the Electoral Act have given the Independent National Electoral Commission the authority to issue notices of elections.
These notices mark the beginning of a series of activities that lead to an election. Section 28 of the Act states that the Commission must, not later than 360 days before the scheduled election date, publish a notice in each state of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) indicating the election date and designating the location where nomination papers are to be submitted.
This notice triggers other steps in the electoral calendar. After publishing the notice, the Commission shall also publish rules and regulations governing primaries and campaign activities. This is when political parties and candidates can campaign publicly.
“Campaigning in public,” as referred to in sections 94 and 95 of the Act, is the period of campaigning in public by every political party which shall commence 150 days before polling day and end 24 hours before that day.
“A registered political party which through any person acting on its behalf during the 24 hours before polling day advertises on the facilities of any broadcasting undertaking; or procures for publication or acquiesces in the publication of an advertisement in a newspaper, to promote or opposing a particular candidate, commits an offence under the Act and is liable on conviction to a maximum fine of N500,000.”
Consequently, regardless of political realignments, third-party posters, endorsements, and support groups, no individual or aspirant can stand as a candidate for a political party without participating in primaries. It is within the party’s discretion to scrutinise and exclude other aspirants vying for the same position. The party determines the calibre and quality of individuals to be presented as candidates. These internal processes also involve screening out persons with limited political value
The National Assembly Committee on Electoral Matters must define clearly the meaning of campaigns and impose penalties for violations
or those unable to fund vigorous campaigns. Furthermore, the party may focus on specific state voting blocs and favour candidates from those regions. The party might also consider political balancing and zoning to ensure fairness. Addressing the issue of power shift could be a priority.
Subterfuge and tactics may be employed, favouring surrogates of the party’s owners and financiers. In Nigerian politics, certainty is rare, especially since the organisation and conduct of primaries fall under the jurisdiction of the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC). Despite internal factional disputes, the party must hold primaries before selecting a candidate.
Primaries are crucial for identifying a candidate who will seek votes, and the candidate must emerge through legitimate primaries to be eligible under the law. The law prescribes three types of primaries for candidates’ nomination for election. The first is direct primaries.
The Act defines direct primaries as an election at which candidates for elective office are chosen by direct vote of political party members. In the case of indirect primaries, delegates converge at a designated centre in the Constituency where delegates vote for aspirants of their choice.
The aspirant with the highest number of votes cast at the end of voting shall be declared the winner of the election, and that aspirant’s name shall be forwarded to the Commission as the candidate of the party. A political party that adopts a consensus candidate shall secure the written consent of all cleared aspirants for the position, indicating their voluntary withdrawal from the race and their endorsement of the consensus candidate.
Can the flurry of alignments, meetings, and billboards declaring support for individuals reasonably be characterised as campaigning in public within the contemplation of Section 95 of the Electoral Act? Such activities inevitably distract public office holders from governance, as their focus shifts towards the next primaries and elections. Their conduct and decisions become coloured by political calculations rather than the demands of office.
A related issue is the question of accountability for the funds expended on these premature campaigns. Section 89 of the Act defines “election expenses” strictly as expenses incurred by a political party from the date notice of election is given by the Commission up to polling day.
On that basis, the monies being spent cannot be accounted for within the contemplation of the law. Political parties and aspirants may conveniently argue that what they are holding are mere “party meetings,” which fall under the right to freedom of association and the right to strengthen their party.
In reality, however, these activities exploit the lacunae in the law to conduct private campaigns outside the official period. They also raise questions of enforcement. Since such gatherings are not formally recognised as political rallies or processions, the Commissioner of Police in any state would have no legal basis to provide cover for them, as doing so would amount to a violation of the law.
Section 91(1) of the Act provides that the Commissioner of Police in each state of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, shall provide adequate security for the proper and peaceful conduct of political rallies and processions in their respective jurisdictions and, for this purpose, the Police may be supported by the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps and any other security agency of the Federal Government.
The security agencies have also been enjoined not to prevent any registered political party in Nigeria, its aspirants or candidates from holding rallies, processions or meetings at any time for their constitutional political purposes, and the Police shall, in a consultative manner, resolve any conflict of time and venue between and amongst parties where such arises.
The President, the Vice President, the Governor, Deputy Governor, or legislative or local government officeholders must concentrate on governance and must not be allowed to start campaigning for re-election immediately after assuming office. The National Assembly Committee on Electoral Matters must define clearly the meaning of campaigns and impose penalties for violations.
The law must define Third-party campaigns, billboards, endorsements, alignments, realignments and coalitions. The fundamental rights of individuals to freedom of speech, association and assembly must be protected while preserving the public space from being violated when the ban on campaigns has not been lifted.
