The Independent National Electoral Commission INEC has said political party primaries in the country would continue to lack credibility due to the absence of a reliable membership register.

Lamenting the acrimony that has trailed the various party primaries ahead of the 2019 general elections and how the commission is bugged down by hundreds of court cases in which it is joined as a defendant, a senior director in the commission said without a credible membership register, the parties cannot have internal democracy.

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“The question to ask is do you have a register of members? Can we single out people and ask them of their membership registration?. If you do not a register, you cannot have internal democracy but we can help them to provide a simple platform to register members.

“This is the first major thing they should do and after that, they can use technology to campaign. For 2019, the problems are already out and I do believe that for 2023, INEC and parties have to work together to eliminate these challenges”, he said not wanting to be identified for this report as he is the commission’s spokesperson.

The Commission had recently disclosed how it was joined in 396 pending actions in various courts across the country arising from the conduct of party primaries and nomination of candidates by political parties.

Similarly, it had received 302 requests for Certified True Copies CTC of documents, “mainly our monitoring reports of party primaries and copies of personal particulars of candidates. These requests are obviously a prelude to more court actions. In addition, we have also received 52 petitions and protests from aggrieved party aspirants”, INEC stated.