Supreme Court judges arrive for a hearing of the petition challenging NASA's presidential election petition, August 28, 2017. [PHOTO/the-star.co.ke]
Unlike the August 8 presidential elections that were nullified, the October 27 repeat polls cannot easily be declared null and void.
This is after the radical election amendment laws came into effect after being passed by Jubilee MPs ahead of the repeat poll.
According to the Jubilee-championed changes, it is mandatory that a petitioner in court must prove how violations to the Constitution or any electoral law significantly altered the presidential outcome declared by the IEBC.
The new laws also protect the result from being annulled on grounds of inconsistencies in the result forms provided they are not meant to mislead.
“A court shall not declare an election void for noncompliance with any written law relating to that election if it appears that the noncompliance did not substantially affect the result of the election,” states Section 83 of the new Election Act.
In nullifying the August 8 election, Supreme Court judges ruled that elections are not events but processes.
As at now, no petition has been filed at the court to invalidate Uhuru’s win even though NASA and a section of the civil society have objected the outcome and poked holes in the electoral process.