The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the body of political parties in Nigeria, Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), have sharply disagreed over the electoral body’s plan to deregister over 84 out of the 91 political parties in the country.
A reliable source at INEC confided in our correspondent that the electoral body was considering the idea of delisting certain political parties from the lot.
The move to deregister these political parties might not be unconnected with their performance in this year’s general elections.
While some of the political parties contend that INEC lacks the powers to deregister them, sources at the commission insist that the provisions of the electoral law allow it to deregister any political party that falls foul of the law.
It was gathered that while various reports on the conduct of the 2019 general electrons, including tracking of political parties and their candidates’ spending, breaches of the law and performance of the political parties, are being awaited, sources at INEC said the commission was ready to deregister any political party that is found to have defaulted.
During the just concluded general elections, the commission conducted presidential, National Assembly, 29 state governorship, 36 state assembly, chairmanship and councillorship elections in the country, during which many of the political parties performed woefully.
The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1999), Fourth Alteration, No 9 Act, 2017, enacted on May 4, 2017, which amended Section 225 of the 1999 Constitution, empowers INEC to de-register political parties on grounds of: b. failure to win at least 25 percent of votes cast in – i. one state of the federation in a presidential election; or ii. one local government of the state in a governorship election; c. failure to win at least – i. one ward in the chairmanship election; ii. one seat in the National or State House of Assembly election; or iii. one seat in the councillorship election.
Also, Section 78 (7) (i) and (ii) of the Electoral Act, 2010 (as amended) empowers INEC to deregister any political party that: i. has breached any of the requirements for registration; and ii. has failed to win a seat in the National or State Assembly.
Since the completion of the 2019 general elections, many Nigerians, including legal luminary, Chief Femi Falana, have been calling on the electoral umpire to wield the big stick on political parties that fall within the deregistration category based on the provisions of the law.
It would be recalled that criticisms were hauled at the previous INEC chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, when he deregistered 28 political parties. Jega had insisted that the action was based on the fact that the affected parties fell short of meeting the requirements of the law.
The parties went to court and got a favourable judgement. This prompted the federal lawmakers to amend some sections of the Electoral Act during constitution amendment.
“The National Assembly took advantage of the 2017 constitutional review to reduce the number of registered political parties in the country,” a senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Femi Falana, said.
He urged INEC to reduce the number of political parties in the country to 10.
In a statement he released following the fallout of the 2019 general elections, Falana said the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (Fourth Alteration, No 9) Act, 2017, enacted on May 4, 2017, had amended section 225 of the 1999 Constitution and empowered INEC to deregister political parties. Out of Nigeria’s 91 political parties, about 73 participated in the last presidential election, with only about five getting a reasonable number of votes.
Ahead of the elections, there were 84,004,084 registered voters, but on the election day, there were 29,364,029 accredited voters with 27,324,583 valid votes. Rejected votes were put at 1,289,607 while the total votes cast were 28,614,190 in the last presidential election.
