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INEC capable of reducing number of political parties -Falana

David Adenekan
David Adenekan
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Femi Falana

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, has declared that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has the power to reduce the number of political parties in the country.

He said that could be done by de-registering some of the political parties that failed to meet the pre-requisite outlined for them.

Falana spoke against the backdrop of the number of parties in the country which has risen to 91 and the general notion that INEC did not have the power to reduce the figure.

In a statement he issued on Sunday, Falana said the power to de-register political parties had been restored to INEC with the 2017 constitutional amendment.

His words:  “Disturbed by the mockery of multi party democracy in the country through the unprincipled proliferation of political parties, the National Assembly amended the Electoral Act 2010 to empower INEC to de-register political parties that failed to win any election. Since political parties were registered pursuant to section 222 of the Constitution the suits filed by the affected political parties succeeded as the Federal High Court declared the amendment unconstitutional and set it aside.

“Among the grounds are that a party can be de-registered if it breaches any of the requirements for registration and fails to win at least twenty-five per cent of votes cast in one State of the Federation in a Presidential election; or one Local Government of the State in a Governorship election.

“However, 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.”

He stated further:  “From the foregoing, it is indubitably clear that INEC has been conferred with enormous powers to de-register political parties that fail to meet the fresh constitutional prerequisites.

“Going by the results of the 2019 general elections the 91 registered political parties may have been reduced to less than 10 that may have scaled the constitutional hurdle.

“Not a few people would hail the constitutional amendment in view of the prostitution of the political system by political parties 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.”

The Lagos based lawyer called on INEC to formulate new guidelines for the registration political parties within the ambit of the Constitution.

According to him, that should be done in view of the fact that not less than 100 political associations were said to have submitted applications for the registration of new political parties.

He stressed that with respect to registered political parties, INEC must fully comply with section 225(2) of the Constitution by sanctioning them if they failed to submit a detailed annual statement and analysis of their sources of funds and assets.

“This will go a long way to check the monetisation 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,” Falana said.

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