Only 10 Parties Could Survive INEC Purge’ – Falana

Senior lawyer, Mr Femi Falana, has said the Independent National Electoral Commission does not need any further amendment to the Constitution to be able to trim down the 91 political parties to the barest minimum.

Falana, who is a senior advocate of Nigeria, also said if INEC followed the constitutional provisions on deregistration of political parties, not more than 10 of the 91 political parties would survive based on their performances in the just-concluded general elections, Punch
writes.

Falana stated this in an article on Sunday, titled, “INEC’s fresh power to deregister political parties.”

He cited the May 2017 amendment to Section 225 of the 1999 Constitution, which empowered INEC to deregister any political party on the grounds of “(a) breach of any of the requirements for registration; (b)failure to win at least 25 per cent of votes cast in: (i) One state of the federation in a presidential election; or (ii) one local government of the state in a governorship election; (c) failure to win at least – (i) one ward in the chairmanship election; (ii) one seat in the national or state House of Assembly election; or (iii) one seat in the councillorship election.”

Falana said, “From the foregoing, it is indubitably clear that INEC has been conferred with enormous powers to deregister 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.”