How Kenya election petition will strengthen future polls » Capital News

A leading scholar has congratulated Kenyan leaders who lost in the elections for opting to seek legal redress rather than mass protests.

Prof Jurij Toplak, one of the world’s leading election law experts, said solving election disagreements by legal means is beneficial to protesting.

Toplak is a professor of election law at Alma Mater Europaea University and Fordham Law School in New York.

Commenting on the Kenyan election, Toplak said courts involvement is actually good for democracy.

“It can clear the voters’ doubts, remedy violations, and increase transparency and trust,” he said.

“During legal dispute, those involved must not call for protests but ask supporters to calmly wait for the courts to do their job.”

Toplak is the coauthor of the Routledge Handbook of Election Law, one of the most important books on election disputes worldwide.

He said although countries always strive for a free, fair and credible election, the process is never perfect and flawless. And that is where courts come in.

Internationally accepted standards for free and fair elections include elections to be inclusive, transparent, and competitive.

Toplak said if an election falls below these standards and is invalidated by courts, this is hugely beneficial to future polls because all participants will know that violations will not be tolerated.

“In 2017, when the Supreme Court nullified the presidential election and Kenyans re-elected the president in a repeated vote, Kenya affirmed itself as a resilient democracy and came out even stronger. The Supreme Court’s historic decision set high standards for properly conducted elections. Researchers all around the world studied the 2017 elections in Kenya. In years that followed, several countries’ top courts annulled elections and referendums, including in Malawi, Switzerland, and Slovenia,” says Toplak, who researched elections in over twenty countries, including three months in Uganda in 2016.

He also wrote successful election appeals that nullified a referendum, reinstated disqualified candidates and mandated all polling stations to become accessible to wheelchairs in various countries.

He said judges’ decision must always be well reasoned, based on evidence, and aligned with domestic law and the country’s international commitments.

Politicians and voters must also show trust in the rule of law, let the courts do their job, and commit to a peaceful transition of power.

As a consultant to international organizations, Toplak has worked in Uganda, Canada, the United States, France, Finland, Latvia, Monaco, Malta, Romania, Montenegro, Serbia, and elsewhere.

The Guardian, Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, and other global media published his legal opinion.

The Routledge Handbook of Election Law, which he co-edited and published in July 2022,

covers topics such as money and elections, fair elections, electoral violence, fraud, ballot design, voting equipment, gender and elections, electoral disputes, the annulment of election results, free speech, and campaigns.

The book can help election commissions such as the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, politicians, judges, scholars, and researchers.

It contains the first overview of court cases on elections from all over Africa.

On Saturday, Azimio Leader Raila Odinga reiterated that he would pursue justice for lost victory through legal means and called on Kenyans to maintain peace.

He told religious leaders who paid him a courtesy call at his Karen home on Saturday that he still believes the election was not free and fair, describing it as “shambolic.”

“You all know what happened at the Bomas of Kenya,” he said, “that was not an election because it was not conducted properly, we will be seeking justice through legal means to ensure the world knows what exactly transpired.”

And he dismissed the electoral commission’s declaration of his opponent Deputy President William Ruto as President-Elect, saying “all this is short-lived.”

“We do not have a president-elect yet,” he said, “when you listen to what the four dissenting commissioners of IEBC said when they walked out of Bomas of Kenya, you will clearly understand that there was a problem.”

Anyone aggrieved with the presidential results announced on August 15 by IEBC Chairman Wafula Chebukati has until Monday to file a petition at the Supreme Court.