…canvass stringent conditions for party registration

By Tordue Salem

ABUJA— The House of Representatives has empowered the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to de-register political parties that fail to establish offices in at least 24 states of the Federation or at least 620 local governments in the country.

A report on the amendment to the Electoral Act 2006, as submitted by the Muhammed Ali Ndume-led ad hoc Committee on registration of political parties, provides stringent conditions for political parties registration.

Approving the recommendations of an ad-hoc committee which the House set up two weeks ago to aggregate views of its members on political parties registration, the House specifically declared that any political party which failed to win a seat in the National Assembly after an election should be de-registered by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

The House which is dominated by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, with over 275 members out of its 360 population also approved that for any association to be registered as political party, it must have established verifiable and functional offices in at least two-third of the 774 local government areas in the country.

Curiously, the Chairman of the ad-hoc committee Mohammed Ali Ndume (ANPP, Borno State) is the leader of the minority parties in the House of Representatives.

His committee’s recommendations which were overwhelmingly approved read: “the association to be registered must maintain functional and verifiable office in at least two-third of the local government of the Federation; the association to be registered must have at least 10,000 registered and verified members in at least two-third of the States of the Federation; the commission shall verify all the claims of the associations seeking registration and publish same in three national newspapers; the commission shall have power to de-register political parties on the following grounds: breach of any of the requirements for registration; for failure to win a seat in the National or State Assembly Election.”