INEC: Mixed reactions trail deregistration of 74 parties
.Recognises 18 ahead of 2023 polls .Fixes dates for Edo, Ondo governorship polls
Mixed reactions trailed news of deregistration of 74 political parties by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Thursday.
Recall that INEC on Thursday announced that it had deregistered 74 out of the 91 political parties that participated in the 2019 general election.
The chairman of the commission, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, at a press conference in Abuja, said “Nigeria now has 18 registered political parties”.
The parties, he said, failed to satisfy the requirements of the Fourth Alteration to the 1999 Constitution.
Also, INEC has fixed Saturday, September 19, 2020 and Saturday, October 10, 2020 as dates for governorship elections in Edo and Ondo states respectively.
The Commission (INEC) named the ruling All Progressives Party (APC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) among the 18 political parties that satisfied requirements to contest elections ahead of the 2023 polls.
Whenever I meet Gowon I thank him for initiating the NYSC – Buhari
Other parties that fulfilled registration requirements for existence based on Section 225A of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) include Accord Party, Action Alliance (AA), African Action Congress (AAC), African Democratic Congress (ADC), African Democratic Party (ADP), Allied Peoples Movement (APM), and Labour Party (LP).
The rest are New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), National Rescue Movement (NRM), Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Social Democratic Party (SDP), Young Progressive Party (YPP) and Zenith Labour Party (ZLP).
The remaining two parties that scaled registration hurdles are the Action Peoples Party (APP) which has a pending suit against INEC in the court and the Boot Party (BP), which was registered by court order after the 2019 general election.
According to Yakubu, 74 parties were deregistered after the Commission “carried out an assessment of political parties to determine compliance with the requirements for their registration”.
He stated further that “following the conclusion of the 2019 general election, including court -ordered re – run elections arising from litigations, the Commission was able to detetmine the performance of political parties in the elections.
“In addition, they were also assessed on the basis of their performance in the Area Council elections in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) which coincided with the 2019 general election.
“Accordingly, seventy – four (74) political parties are hereby deregistered. With this development, Nigeria now has eighteen (18) registered political parties”.
The power of INEC to deregister parties, he said, was further strenghtened by the National Assembly which amended the Constitution to empower the Commission to deregister political parties on the grounds of “breach of any of the requirements for registration as a political party and failure to win at least 25% of the votes cast in one State of the Federation in a Presidential election or 25% of the votes cast in one Local Government Area of a State in a Governorship election and failure to win at least one ward in a Chairmanship election, one seat in the National or State Assembly election or one seat in a Councillorship election”.
Apart from the Edo and Ondo gubernatorial elections, Yakubu said the commission will conduct bye – elections in three constituencies as a result of the deaths of some serving members of the National and State assemblies.
Bye – elections will be conducted in Magama/Rijau Federal Constituency of Niger State, Patigi State Constituency of Kwara State and Kebbe State Constituency of Sokoto State.
He said “these bye-elections will hold simultaneously in the three (3) states of the Federation on Saturday, 14th March 2020”.
Reacting to the news of de-registration of 74 political parties by INEC, Prince Adelaja Adeoye, National Publicity Secretary of ADP, called on members of the delisted parties to join hands with ADP to make it more formidable ahead of future elections in the country.
He said “they must not feel like they have no place to go to because ADP is the party they should consider and they will be well treated when they join”.
He praised ADP members nationwide, who participated in the verification exercise, which showed that the party is not just a mere party on paper but very strong at the grassroots, across the 774 local government in the country.
He charged all leaders and members of the party to double their efforts in attracting more members and prominent Nigerians.
He said: “We must ensure that the party is not just there to provide alternative but to take charge of leadership at the centre come 2023, because it has what it takes to produce the next President and governors in all the states”.
Meanwhile, chairman of the Buhari Media Organisation (BMO), Mr. Niyi Akinsuji, said prunning down of parties to a manageable size is a good development towards sanitising the nation’s electoral process.
He added that smaller number of parties will save the election management body, INEC, cost of conducting elections.
He said: “Personally, I have been an advocate of the need to audit and trim the numbers of registered parties that are able to put forward political contestants at elections.
“Though we are yet to be availed the legal grounds on which the Independent National Electoral Commission deregistered these parties, on the face value, it is a required move to sanitise the nation’s electoral processes and political environment.
“The reduction from a high of 92 parties to 18 has both cost and management implications for the electoral commission while creating ease of election amongst the generality of voting Nigerians.
“This will also ensure seriousness in political contest because it has reduced the space for political ambition retailers whose interests do not go beyond printing their pictures on posters and using their weak parties to negotiate relevance in electoral contest”.
