INEC has powers to de-register political parties – Ekweremadu

A former Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, has
said the constitution amendments carried out by the 8th National
Assembly had substantially addressed the problem of proliferation
of political parties in Nigeria.

Ekweremadu, who was also the chairman of the Senate Committee on
Constitution Review for 12 years, stated this in a statement on
Tuesday and signed by his media aide, Uche Anichukwu.

He expressed surprise at a recent statement credited to the
Independent National Electoral Commission, Commissioner in charge
of Nasarawa, Kogi, and Kwara States, Muhammed Haruna, that the
electoral body lacked the powers to de-register political parties
without further constitution amendments.

The lawmaker said what INEC needed to do was to look at the
provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,
1999 (Fourth Alteration, No. 9) Act published in Official Gazette
No. 77 Vol. 105 to be well guided.

He insisted that the latest amendments, duly assented to by
President Muhammadu Buhari, spelt out various reasons that can make
the electoral umpire deregister political parties.

Ekweremadu said, “The size of our political parties constitutes
a logistical challenge to the election management body.

“More electorate now find it difficult to identify the logos of
their preferred political parties.

“The ballots and result sheets are getting too long and
unwieldy. It also has cost and time implications on elections.

“However, I believe INEC’s concern has already been
substantially addressed by the 1999 Constitution as amended by the
8th National Assembly and assented by President Muhammadu
Buhari.

“We inserted a new Section 225A, which provides that the INEC
shall have the power to deregister political parties for breach of
any of the requirements for registration and failure to win at
least 25 per cent of votes cast in one state of the federation in a
presidential election or 25 per cent of votes cast in at least one
local government in a governorship election.

“It further empowers INEC to de-register any party that fails to
win at least one ward in the Chairmanship election or one seat in
the National Assembly or State House of Assembly election or one
seat in the Councillorship election.

“What it means is that a political party may continue to exist.
But once it appears on the ballot, it becomes compulsory for it to
meet certain benchmarks to continue to exist.

“So, it is incumbent on INEC to filter out and de-register those
political parties that appeared on the presidential election ballot
but did not garner at least 25 per cent of votes in at least one
state of the federation.

“It should also look at parties that contested election in the
states and de-register those political parties that did not poll up
to 25 per cent of votes in at least one local government area in
those states they contested an election.

“The idea is to encourage political parties to see an election
as a serious democratic exercise and to confine themselves to the
level of election they have reasonable structures, support base,
and resources to win or show substantial strength; otherwise our
elections will become unmanageable at a point”.

Ekweremadu added that the efforts to check the mushrooming of
political parties started in the 6th National Assembly in 2010 by
the stopping of subventions by INEC to political parties.

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