Ewherido urges INEC to peg number of political parties at three

By Henry Umoru

ABUJA — Vice-Chairman, Senate Committee on Marine Transport, Senator Pius Ewherido (DPP, Delta Central), has called on Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to limit the number of political parties in the country to two or three.

Speaking with journalists in Abuja, weekend, Senator Ewherido, who hailed INEC Chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega for de-registering some political parties, said that axing 31 political parties was akin to removing the chaff from the grains.

Ewherido said: “I agree completely with INEC except that I believe that even five are too many. We should come back to three, let everybody who is a politician play politics within these three parties.”

He said that the proliferation of political parties in Nigeria weakens democracy, adding, “Let me say that I am comfortable with the suggestion by INEC that we should not have more than five political parties because in practice, you find out that the parties that are active at the end of the day, and have overwhelming control, are not more than three or two.”