Falana Urges INEC To Deregister Unqualified Political Parties

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has powers to reduce the number of political parties in Nigeria, says senior lawyer, Femi Falana, decrying what he calls “unprincipled proliferation” of parties.
Nigeria, a multi-party liberal democracy, currently has 91 political parties registered by INEC and there are reports even more groups have pending applications seeking official recognition to contest in elections. Most of the parties were not able to poll up 20 thousand votes in the last national elections and lack presence in most parts of the country.
“This unprincipled proliferation of political parties” is “a mockery of multi-party system,” said Mr Falana in a statement on Sunday.
The Supreme Court ruling, 2003, in the case between INEC and Second Republic former governor of Kaduna State, Balarabe Musa, paved the way for the liberalisation of the party system in Nigeria,
“But the expansion of the democratic space was exploited by people of ill-motivated agenda who set up all kinds of political associations and proceeded to register “Regrettably, INEC has failed woefully to enforce the relevant provisions of the Constitution and the Electoral Act on the registration and operation of political parties, Mr Falana.”
Switching party alliances after winning election on the platform of one, failure of INEC to wield the stick when parties impose candidates in violation of the law and the “shameless” ditching of candidates by parties to endorse President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress and Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic in the last presidential poll shot off from the opportunism accompanying “unprincipled” expansion of the political space, says Falana.
He pointed at the relevant legislation empowering INEC to deregister political parties certain grounds.
“The National Assembly took advantage of the 2017 constitutional review to reMr Falana.Mr Falana.duce 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 on grounds of:
“a. breach of any of the requirements for registration;
“b. failure to win at least twenty-five per cent of votes cast in-
“i. one State of the Federa