The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said the large number of political parties that participated in the 2019 general election created a lot of logistics problem, arguing that there was urgent need to prune the number to a manageable number.
The National Commissioner in charge of Kwara, Kogi and Nasarawa States, Malam Mohammed Haruna, said this in Ilorin while speaking with journalists.
It would be recalled that INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu had organised a workshop in Kwara to review the 2019 general election.
According to the National Commissioner, there were 799 litigations from the 2019 general election 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.
The commissioner said the Electoral Act and the Constitution have to be reviewed to curb the increasing number of political parties.
According to him, the Constitution and the Electoral Act made it easy for anybody to register a political party once the person has an office in Abuja and its executive officers that reflected the Federal Character.
Haruna said that the workshop was to review the 2019 general election to see what went wrong, and how to make sure that similar mistakes are not repeated in future elections.
He said the review would help the commission to do better during off-season elections coming up in Bayelsa and Kogi later in the year.
In his remarks, the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Kwara, Malam GarbaAttahiru-Madami, said the workshop was mainly to review the activities of the last election and proffer solutions to identified lapses.
Madami, who was represented by the Administrative Secretary, Mr Martins BorrisChiroma, advised participants to contribute meaningfully to the sessions.
“We want to receive inputs from you that will help INEC to overcome challenges identified during the last general elections.