SAN FRANCISCO, February 06, (THEWILL) – The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Thursday deregistered 74 out of 92 registered political parties in the country.
Announcing the de-registration in a press briefing in Abuja, INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu said they were deregistered for their inability to meet requirements for their continued existence based on Section 225A of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
He recalled that prior to the 2019 general election, Nigeria had 91 political parties while one more party was registered by court order after the election, making a total of 92 political parties.
Yakubu said that the 1999 Constitution (as amended) vests in INEC, the power to register and regulate activities of political parties.
“However, 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. “The party remains registered pending the determination of the case by the court.
“The new political party, Boot Party (BP) registered by court order after the 2019 general election will also continue to exist.
“Accordingly, 74 political parties are hereby deregistered. With this development, Nigeria now has 18 registered political parties,” Yakubu said.
“It was for this reason that the National Assembly amended the Constitution to empower the commission to deregister political parties on the following grounds:
“Breach of any of the requirements for registration as a political party.
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“Failure to win at least 25 per cent of the votes cast in one State of the Federation in a Presidential election or 25 per cent 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 16 parties that scaled through were, Accord Party (A), Action Alliance (AA), African Action Congress (AAC), African Democratic Congress (ADC), African Democratic Party (ADP), All Progressives Congress (APC), All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and Allied Peoples Movement (APM).
Other parties which also met the requirement include, Labour Party (LP), New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), National Rescue Movement (NRM), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Social Democratic Party (SDP), Young Progressive Party (YPP) and Zenith Labour Party (ZLP).
The deregistered parties included, Alliance National Party (ANP), Abundant Nigeria Renewal Party (ANRP), African Peoples Alliance (APA), Better Nigeria Progressive Party (BNPP), Fresh Democratic Party (FRESH), Hope Democratic Party (HDP) and Nigeria Community Movement Party (NCMP).
National Unity Party (NUP), Peoples Coalition Party (PCP), Peoples For Democratic Change (PDC), Peoples Trust (PT), Reform and Advancement Party (RAP), United Democratic Party (UDP), Unity Party Of Nigeria (UPN) and United Progressive Party (UPP) were also deregistered.
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