D. PETITIONERS’ AND THE 1ST INTERESTED PARTY’S CASE [14] This petition is anchored on the grounds that the conduct of the 2017 presidential election violated the principles of a free and fair election as well as the electoral process set out in the Constitution, electoral laws and regulations and that the respondents committed errors in the voting, counting and tabulation of results; committed irregularities and improprieties that significantly affected the election result; illegally declared as rejected unprecedented and contradictory quantity of votes; failed in the entire process of relaying and transmitting election results as required by law; and generally committed other contraventions and violations of the electoral process. (i) Violation of the Principles Set out in the Constitution, Electoral Laws and Regulations [15] On violation of the principles set out in the Constitution as well as the electoral laws and regulations, the petitioners’ case as contained in the affidavits in support of the petition and the written and oral submissions of their counsel was that in relation to elections, the citizenry’s fundamental political rights under Article 38 are encapsulated in the principles of free and fair elections in Article 81(e) and IEBC’s obligation to conduct elections in a simple, accurate, verifiable, secure, accountable and transparent manner as stated in Article 86 of the Constitution. The petitioners also argue that IEBC, like all other state organs and persons, is bound by the principle of constitutional supremacy under Article 2(1) of the Constitution. It follows then that, in the conduct of any election, any of its acts that Presidential  Petition  No.  1  of  2017                                                                                                                                                                                                            6  |  P a g e