Falana asks INEC to deregister unqualified political parties | Nairalaw

The Independent National Electoral Commission has powers to
reduce the number of political parties in Nigeria, says senior
lawyer, Femi Falana, decrying what he calls “unprincipled
proliferation” of parties.

Nigeria, a multi-party liberal democracy, currently has 91
political parties registered by INEC and there are reports even
more groups have pending applications seeking official recognition
to contest in elections. Most of the parties were not able to poll
up 20 thousand votes in the last national elections and lack
presence in most parts of the country.

“This unprincipled proliferation of political parties” is “a
mockery of multi-party system,” said Mr Falana in a statement on
Sunday.

The Supreme Court ruling, 2003, in the case between INEC and
Second Republic former governor of Kaduna State, Balarabe Musa,
paved the way for the liberalisation of the party system in
Nigeria,

“But the expansion of the democratic space was exploited by
people of ill-motivated agenda who set up all kinds of political
associations and proceeded to register them as political parties,”
said Mr Falana. “Regrettably, INEC has failed woefully to enforce
the relevant provisions of the Constitution and the Electoral Act
on the registration and operation of political parties.”

Switching party alliances after winning election on the platform
of one, failure of INEC to wield the stick when parties impose
candidates in violation of the law and the “shameless” ditching of
candidates by parties to endorse President Muhammadu Buhari of the
All Progressives Congress and Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples
Democratic in the last presidential poll shot off from the
opportunism accompanying “unprincipled” expansion of the political
space, suggested Mr Falana.

“INEC’s powers to deregister
He pointed at the relevant legislation empowering INEC to
deregister political parties certain grounds.

“The National Assembly took advantage of the 2017 constitutional
review to reduce the number of registered political parties in the
country. Thus, the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,
1999 (Fourth Alteration, No 9) Act, 2017 enacted on May 4, 2017,
has amended section 225 of the 1999 Constitution to empower the
Independent National Electoral Commission to de-register political
parties on grounds of:

“a. breach of any of the requirements for registration;

“b. failure to win at least twenty-five per cent 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.”

Going by the results of the elections, the 91 registered
political parties may have been reduced to less than 10 that may
have scaled the constitutional hurdle, he said.

He suggested that many would hail the legislation in view of the
“prostitution of the political system by political parties (that
are) ill-equipped to promote participatory democracy, economic,
freedom, human rights and rule of law.

“But it ought to be pointed out that the planned de-registration
of political parties that fail to win elections is likely to limit
the political space to the so-called mainstream political parties
that are not committed to any political philosophy or ideology,” he
said, drawing a caution.

This is similar to the view of popular lawyer Jiti Ogunye who
asked the worried public to be wary of knee-jerk approach on the
grounds of parties’ following and electoral success, which he said
were not enough to de-register parties based on existing law.

“Nigeria, being a multi-party country, the political space
should be tolerant of all sorts of political birds, such that these
birds can fly without colliding with one another,” said Mr Ogunye,
reported by Punch newspaper of March 7. “That should be our primary
consideration.”

Mr Falana’s view about having 91 political parties with more
groups seeking registration is a concern for other senior lawyers,
including Akin Oyebode and ‘Folake Solanke.

“It is a lack of discretion,” said Mr Oyebode.

“Finally,” Mr Falana continued in his Sunday statement, “to
sanitise the political system INEC is called upon to formulate new
guidelines for the registration of political parties within the
ambit of the Constitution. This should be done in view of the fact
that not less than 100 political associations are said to have
submitted applications for the registration of new political
parties.

“With respect to registered political parties, INEC must fully
comply with section 225(2) of the Constitution by sanctioning them
if they fail to submit a detailed annual statement and analysis of
their sources of funds and assets. This will go a long way to check
the monetization and brazen manipulation of the democratic process
by political godfathers.

“More importantly, INEC should henceforth exercise its powers
under Section 224 of the Constitution by ensuring that the
programmes, as well as the aims and objects of every political
party, conform with the provisions of the fundamental objectives
and directive principles of State Policy enshrined in Chapter II of
the Constitution.”