INEC should be free of all influences. So I want to submit that INEC didn’t take that decision to postpone the election and if it did, INEC took the decision outside the purview of the Electoral Act.
Since nobody is challenging it, let us fold our arms and prepare for the elections. And again let me add as a statesman and lawyer that INEC is not independent. If INEC were to be independent then this problem would not have occurred.
But theirs says that “the electors of President and Vice President shall be appointed in each state on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November of every fourth year, succeeding every election of President and vice Presidents.”
This has been there for centuries and that is the provision for election in the U.S. Let’s go back to history. In 1845, when this date was chosen, the United States was largely agrarian, so, factors like the end of the harvest season and the fact that the winter-storms won’t have begun were considered.
More so, Sunday was not chosen because of church services, Monday was not chosen because farmers often needed a full day to travel by horse drawn carts to where they will vote, and Wednesday was not chosen because it served as market days in most of the counties. That is why they put it on Tuesday, not even on the first day of the month.
That Tuesday is registered in the psyche and sub-consciousness of every American because this date has never changed. We have to know what happens in the advanced democracies of the world and what makes them tick. In the United Kingdom, there is obedience to the tenor, intention and spirit of the law.
There is also what is called ‘The Fixed-Term Parliament Act of 2011,’ which mandates dissolution of the present parliament on March 30, 2015 and provides further that election will be conducted on May 7, 2015, unless, the House of Commons votes for an earlier date. In other words, election can be held earlier than May 7, but not later.
If you look at the election that was held in India, the largest democracy in the world, and just as you are aware that the current Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, was a newspaper vendor, and later, a trained journalist who became the Prime Minister of the largest democracy in the world; with about 800 million voters, election date was not changed.
If you keep on changing the date of elections, people will lose confidence in the outcome of the election. Enthusiasm will die, and it affects the economy too.
If this is done in America, but they won’t do it, it would affect the New York Stock Exchange. And if it affects the New York Stock Exchange, then it will affect the economy of the entire world. In the same vein, it has affected ours and more so, this is a nation where our federalism is upside down.
Lastly, if the elections were postponed for security reasons under Section 26(1) of the Electoral Act, INEC should have restricted the postponement to the areas under security threat, rescheduling the elections thereat for 28th March, and not the entire country.”