Among the events after elections are: (1) After the vote count, the results are declared by the Chief Election Officer. (2) The electoral quota is calculated by dividing the total number of votes cast by the total number of MPs. (3) The votes obtained by each list is then divided by the electoral quota which allocates the number of seats to each list. (4) The list representative extracts from the list and submits to the Chief Election Officer the names of those persons to become elected members. (5) The Chief Election Officer declares those names to be the names of candidates on such list who have been elected.
The Chief Justice (ag) said, in the recently decided case of Morian v The Attorney General and the Speaker of the National Assembly, that all candidates become elected members of the National Assembly before the allocation of seats among the successful lists, that is, before stage 3. He said: “It is further clear that members of such successful lists are constitutionally recognized as ‘elected members’ even before the stage of allocation between those successful lists is reached – let alone before extraction (or selection) is made by the representatives of such lists after such allocation of seats between or among the successful lists.”
In practical reality this means that, assuming that the two successful parties, APNU+AFC and PPP/C, submitted lists with 65 candidates each (more than 65 candidates can be on a list), upon the declaration of the
