17/08/2022
In Suleiman Said Shahbal v. The
Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission & 3 Others, Election Petition No. 8 of 2013 the court stated:
‘...a declaration must be in a formal instrument, I find that the forms containing the results of the
elections at every level constitute such formal instruments. When the forms 34, 35, 36, 37 or 38 have been duly signed by the authorized returning officer, [they become] instruments which cannot be challenged save through election petition’. Article 138(3)(c) begins right at the polling station. The aggregate eventually leads us to the 34C the Chairperson will eventually use to declare the overall result.
Article 138(10) is the sole preserve of the Chairperson. The Regulations enable that function, and that role in my view cannot be fettered. The caveat of the Commission's Consent is for good practice, it enhances the discretion of the Chairperson to make a declaration of the final tally of all the constituencies, and it does not and neither is it intended to curtail that discretion. It cannot take away from him the powers conferred by Article 138(10).
