In a consultative meeting held on Wednesday, the Independent National Electoral Commission Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu informed the Nation that more political parties will be registered soon.
“As I speak with you, the Commission has over 108 Political Associations seeking fresh registration”
He added that pending Political Associations requesting to be registered as Political Parties will be addressed early November.
“We want to assure all the Associations that the Commission will register those that met the legal requirements”
The INEC Chairman mentioned that 18 of the 46 registered Political Parties had not constituted the National Executive Council (NEC), as required by law emphasizing that the processes and conditions for registration must be followed.
“Section 223 of the constitution talks about the validity of the composition of the Political Parties’ NEC”
He expressed displeasure over the failure of some Political Parties to have functional offices in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), as stipulated in section 222 of the constitution.
“As we speak today, only 29 Political Parties are in compliance while 17 Political Parties are not”
“So, we have 17 Political Parties that have no offices in the FCT or their rents have expired which amounts to the same thing as not having an office in the FCT”
He stated that parties were expected to submit their election campaign expenses for the 2015 General Elections to the Commission, but bemoaned that only five political parties were in compliance.
“While 24 other Political Parties did not comply, the case of the 17 parties is understandable because they were registered after the General Elections, but for parties that contested the General Elections, only five complied”.
An excerpt from the Electoral Act 2010 as amended, states thus:
“an application for registration as a political party shall not be processed, unless there is evidence of payment of administrative fees as may be fixed from time to time by the commission”
“Evidence of payment of the prescribed non-refundable administrative fee of N1, 000, 000 in bank draft to the commission” should be presented.
The complete guidelines for the registration of a new political party as stipulated by INEC can be seen on this link below:
Click to access GUIDELINES-FOR-THE-REGISTRATION-OF-NEW-POLITICAL-PARTIES.pdf
