2019 Elections: Multiple Parties, Cause Of Logistic Challenges

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said that the  large number of political parties that participated in the 2019 general elections created a lot of logistics problem.
The National Commissioner in charge of Kwara, Kogi and Nasarawa States,  Malam Mohammed Haruna, said this in Ilorin while speaking with journalists at a workshop to review the 2019 general elections.
According to the National Commissioner, there were 799 litigations from the 2019 general elections across the country.
He said that Jigawa  had no petition from the election,  Kwara had only three petitions and that Imo  topped the list with 77 petitions.
Haruna said that there were over 800 cases across the country that arose from political parties’ primary elections so far.
“So you can see that with these kinds of problems we had, there is really a need to look at the number of political parties.
“We really need to do something about the 91 political parties, not just the quantity which generally speaking the public have begun to complain  that 93 political parties are  on the high side,” he added.
He noted that 73 political parties contested for the Presidential election, adding that this was the source of the serious logistics problem that the commission had.
“We underestimated the kind of logistical problem that implied the size of the ballot papers,  result sheets and so on.
“By the time these materials started arriving, we realise that it was a huge logistical problem.
“We are lucky, we had the Nigerian Air Force to help with the movement of the materials, they have always been helping us,” Haruna said.