The Independent National Electoral Commission has hinted of plans to deregister political parties it classified as “commercial and dormant”.
According to him, many of the country’s political parties merely exist in name and do not add value to the electoral process and, therefore, need to be deregistered. INEC said that the parties have no presence in most state of the federation, adding that the high number caused logistics problems for the commission in the 2019 general elections while the several logos in the ballot papers made voting difficult for non-very literate citizens.
“Another three of the 11 were making corrections to their applications. Another three were awaiting verification visit from the commission. Four of the 11 were yet to return their application Form PA. Additionally, since the conclusion of the 2019 elections, three new associations have applied to be registered as political parties, thus joining the 79 associations that failed initial assessment of the suitability of their proposed names and or logos,” Okoye said.
He said: “The commission will also propose a rational and democratic threshold for getting on the ballot and save the Nigerian people the phenomena of ‘also ran”. “The commission has issued certificates of return in some cases based on court orders, withdrawn certificates of return based on court Orders, restored withdrawn certificates of return based on court orders and withdrew the said certificates again based on court orders.
The electoral body added that it would engage the leadership of the judiciary relating to the territorial jurisdiction of the Federal High Court on the handling of pre-election matters. “The commission will henceforth tie the acceptance of the list of candidates of political parties emanating from party primaries to the authentication of the results of the outcome of the said primaries. In other words, the commission will not accept the list of nominated candidates that are at variance with the clear intendment of section 87 of the Electoral Act.
“Electoral officers, collation officers, supervisory presiding officers and other managers of election must strive to have elementary knowledge of the electoral legal framework for the conduct of elections. Electoral officers with little or no knowledge of the electoral legal framework for the conduct of elections are a danger to the electoral process.