Former Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu has chided the Independent National Electoral Commission for lamenting about the number of political parties in the country, noting that the electoral umpire had the right to deregister weak political parties.
INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu had at a recent roundtable meeting said the number of groups seeking to be registered as political parties were more than the number of parties already in existence stressing that if measures were not taken to address the issue, it could affect the conduct of future elections.
Reacting to the statement, Ekeremadu in a statement by his Media Aide, Uche Anichukwu, said what INEC should simply 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 in order to be well guided.
He said that the latest amendments, duly assented to by President Buhari, spelt out various reasons that can make the electoral umpire de-register political parties.
“INEC concern has already been substantially addressed by the 1999 Constitution as amended by the Eighth National Assembly and assented by President Muhammadu Buhari. We inserted a new Section 225A, which provides that the INEC shall have the power to de-register political parties for breach of any of the requirements for registration and failure to win at least 25 percent of votes cast in one state of the federation in a presidential election or 25 percent 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 percent 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 percent of votes in at least one local government area in those states they contested the election.’’
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