INEC disqualifies 157 aspiring political parties, invites 14 for screening

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said on Thursday that 157 associations seeking to be registered as political parties have failed to pass the commission’s first scrutiny and have been disqualified.

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The commission also said 14 associations have scaled the first stage of scrutiny and are being considered by the commission.

According to a statement by INEC spokesperson, Sam Olumekun, the decision followed the receipt of the report from its committee reviewing the applications.

He said the decisions would be communicated to the respective association within 24 hours.

He said the commission received a total of 171 requests for registration.

“In addition to reviewing our preparations for forthcoming off-cycle governorship elections and the end-of-tenure Area Council election in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), the meeting also considered the report of its committee on the Review of Letters of Intent from associations seeking registration as political parties,” the statement said.

“Each request was assessed on the basis of its prima facie compliance with the provisions of Section 222 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended), Section 79 (1, 2 and 4) of the Electoral Act 2022 and Clause 2 (i and ii) of the Commission’s Regulations and Guidelines for Political Parties 2022”.

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Next steps

Mr Olumekun said the interim chairpersons and secretaries of the pre-qualified associations would be invited to a briefing on Wednesday 17 September at 11 a.m. at the INEC Headquarters in Abuja.

The associations will also be asked to upload certain information to INEC’s online portal.

The electoral commission will subsequently conduct physical verification for all claims by each association.

He said the final determination of the registrability of the associations as political parties will be made after the physical verification of all their claims to determine compliance with the legal framework.

“We wish to reiterate that party registration is a continuous process under the law. The Commission remains open to the consideration of applications that meet the criteria as provided by law,” he said.

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The pre-qualified associations

The electoral commission also listed the 14 pre-qualified associations as African Transformation Party (ATP), All Democratic Alliance (ADA), Advance Nigeria Congress (ANC), Abundance Social Party (ASP), African Alliance Party (AAP), Citizens Democratic Alliance (CDA), and Democratic Leadership Alliance (DLA).

Others are: Grassroots Initiative Party (GRIP), Green Future Party (GFP), Liberation People’s Party (LPP), National Democratic Party (NDP), National Reform Party (NRP), Patriotic Peoples Alliance (PPA), and the Peoples Freedom Party (PFP)