The Independent National Electoral (INEC) has de-registered 74 political parties for not meeting Constitutional requirements for the existence of a political party in Nigeria.
The Commission however retained sixteen (16) political parties which have fulfilled the requirements for existence based on section 225A of the 1999 Constitution.
These include: All Progressives Congress (APC) Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Accord Party, (AP) Action Alliance (AA), African Action Congress (AAC), African Democratic Congress (ADC), African Democratic Party (ADP) and Allied Peoples Movement (APM).
Others include: Labour Party (LP), New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), National Rescue Movement (NRM), Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Social Democratic Party (SDP), Young Progressives Party and Zenith Labour Party (ZLP).
INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu who disclosed this Thursday at a press conference in Abuja, said one of the political parties, the Action Peoples Party (APP), filed a suit in court and obtained an order restraining the Commission from deregistering it and remains registered pending the determination of the case by the court.
Yakubu also said, a new political party, Boot Party (BP), registered by court order after the 2019 general election will also continue to exist, stating that seventy-four (74) political parties are deregistered and Nigeria now has eighteen (18) registered political parties.
He said the de-registration of the 74 political parties was in line with the provisions of the Constitution which empowered INEC to de-register political parties on the grounds of: breach of any of the requirements for registration as a political party.
“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.
“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”.
The INEC Chairman explained that: “in order to implement the provision of the Fourth Alteration to the Constitution, the Commission carried out an assessment of political parties to determine compliance with the requirements for their registration.
“Similarly, following the conclusion of the 2019 general election, including court-ordered re-run elections arising from litigations, the Commission was able to determine 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”.
Yakubu further announced that, the Edo Governorship election will hold September 19 while Ondo Governoship poll would be October 10 this year.
According to the Nigeria’s Chief Electoral Officer, “the tenure of the Governors of Edo and Ondo States will end on 12th November 2020 and 24th February 2021 respectively.
“Pursuant to the provisions of Section 178(2) of the 1999 Constitution and Section 25(8) of the Electoral Act 2010, elections cannot hold earlier than 150 days and not later than 30 days before the expiration of the term of office of an incumbent Governor.
“Accordingly, the Commission has fixed Saturday 19th September 2020 as the date for the Governorship election in Edo State and Saturday 10th October 2020 for Ondo State”.
He added that, “the Commission is conducting bye-elections in three (3) constituencies as a result of the deaths of some serving members of the National and State Assemblies.
“The Honourable Speaker of the House of Representatives has declared vacancy in Magama/Rijau Federal Constituency of Niger State.
“Similarly, the Honourable Speaker of the Kwara State House of Assembly has declared a vacancy in Patigi State Constituency while the Speaker of the Sokoto State House of Assembly has declared the Kebbe State Constituency vacant.
“These bye-elections will hold simultaneously in the three (3) States of the Federation on Saturday 14th March 2020”.
