an improved standard of living, get equally agitated.127 All these factors make elections at every level extremely ‘high-pressure events.’128 [397] If they are mismanaged or candidates do not respect the rule of law; if the average citizen, political parties and even candidates themselves do not perceive them as free and fair, elections can, and have led to instability in some countries. Examples of such an eventuality abound. However, we do not need to look far for examples. As we have stated, the flawed presidential elections in Kenya in December 2007 led to post-election skirmishes that left over 1,000 people dead, about 50,000 others displaced and drove the country to the brink of precipice not to mention the economic crisis that was thereby wrought. [398] In the circumstances, and in answer to the respondents’ harp on numbers, we can do no better than quote the words of Justice Thakar of the Indian Court of Appeal in the case of Ponnala Lakshmaiah v. Kommuri Pratap Reddy & Others,129 in which he observed: “There is no denying the fact that the election of a successful candidate is not lightly to be interfered with by the Courts. The Courts generally lean in favour of the returned candidates and place the onus of proof on the person challenging the end result of an electoral contest. That approach is more in the nature of a rule of practice than a rule 127 Edwin Odhiambo Abuya, ‘Consequences of a flawed presidential election’, Legal Studies Vol 29, Issue 1 March, 2009 pp127-158 128 Above Note 1. 129 Ponnala Lakshmaiah v. Kommuri Pratap Reddy & Others, Civil Appeal No. 4993 of 2012 arising out of S.L.P. (C) No. 20013 of 2010. Presidential  Petition  No.  1  of  2017                                                                                                                                                                                                            173  |  P a g e