The 74 De-registered Parties Failed To Meet Our Requirement – INEC

Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu has come out to say that the commission has deregistered some political parties in Nigeria.

The deregistration of the parties was announced today in Abuja, and Mahmood revealed that the affected parties did not meet INEC‘s requirements.

According to him, Nigeria now has 18 parties, and the erring parties have been scrapped.

Some of the affected parties include Accord Party, Action Alliance, African Action Congress, African Democratic Congress, All Progressives Congress, All Progressives Grand Alliance and Allied Peoples Movement, Labour Party, New Nigeria Peoples Party, National Rescue Movement, Peoples Democratic Party, Peoples Redemption Party, Social Democratic Party, Young Progressives Party, and Zenith Labour Party.

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The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), set up in 1998, is the electoral body which was set up to oversee elections in Nigeria.

The origin of the INEC goes back to the period before Independence when the Electoral Commission of Nigeria was established to conduct 1959 elections. The Federal Electoral Commission (FEDECO), established in 1960 conducted the immediate post-independence federal and regional elections of 1964 and 1965. The electoral body was dissolved after the military coup of 1966. In 1978, the Federal Electoral Commission was constituted by the regime of General Olusegun Obasanjo, organizing the elections of 1979 which ushered in the Nigerian Second Republic under the leadership of Alhaji Shehu Shagari. It also conducted the general elections of 1983.

The INEC has encountered several controversies in the run-up to elections in the country, most notably the April 2007 general elections, including criticism about its preparedness from Sada Abubakar, Sultan of Sokoto and a dispute over its “disqualification” of Vice president Atiku Abubakar’s candidacy. The Supreme Court ruled that the INEC can not disqualify candidates, so Abubakar’s name was added to ballots at the last minute.

INEC was accused of widespread electoral irregularities in the 2019 presidential elections including cases of ballot paper unavailability, unavailability of smart card readers and large cancellation of valid votes. The main opposition has planned to contest the results of the election.