INEC spares 18 political parties
Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC. Following an assessment of the 92 political parties in Nigeria, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Thursday, said only 18 political parties survived, including one registered after the elections and another that obtained a court order to avoid being deregistration. At a press conference in Abuja, Mahmood Yakubu, INEC Chairman, announced that the commission decided to re-register 74 of them. Yakubu said the affected parties failed to meet the criteria provided for by section 225A of the 1999 Constitution (as amended). The conditions, according to the said section, include: “breach of any of the requirements for registration as a party, failure to win at least 25 percent of the votes cast in one state in a presidential election or 25 percent of the votes cast in one local government area, and failure to win at least one ward in a Chairmanship election, one seat in the national or state assembly election or one ...