transition and good governance….”101 Incidentally, IEBC’s own Election
Manual (Source Book)102 recognizes that an election is indeed a process.
[225] There are many other authorities which speak to this proposition. In
Kanhiyalal Omar v. R.K. Trivedi & Others103 and Union of India
v. Association for Democratic Reforms & Another104, the Supreme
Court of India, for example, stated that the word ‘election’ is used in a wide
sense to include the entire process of election which consists of several
stages and it embraces many steps, some of which may have an important
bearing on the result of the process. These stages include voter registration;
political party and candidate registration; the allocation of state resources
and access to media; campaign activities; and the vote, count, tabulation
and declaration of results.105 Lady Justice Georgina Wood, the former Chief
Justice of Ghana, made the same point and added other stages when she
stated:
“The Electoral process is not confined to the
casting of votes on an election day and the
subsequent declaration of election results
thereafter. There are series of other processes, such
as the demarcation of the country into
constituencies, registration of qualified voters,
registration of political parties, the organization
of the whole polling system to manage and
Likoti, J.F., “Electoral Management Bodies as Institutions of Good Governance: Focus on Lesotho
Independent Electoral Commission” Vol 13(1) Review of South African Studies 123-142(2009) at page,
126 (Dahl, R. (1998) On Democracy. New Haven, CT and London: Yale University Press.) Alternate
citation.
102 Election Manual (Source Book), 1st edition, 2017.
103 Supreme Court of India on 24 September, 1985; 1986 AIR 111, 1985 SCR Supl. (3) 1.
104 Appeal (Civil) 7178 of 2001.
105 OSCE/ODIHR 2013; Guidelines for Reviewing a Legal Framework for Elections Second Edition at
page 70.
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