The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has urged the 74 deregistered political parties to await the judgement of the Supreme Court on appeals relating to the powers of the commission to deregister political parties in accordance with section 225A of the Constitution.
INEC’s National Commissioner and Chairman, Voter Education and Publicity Committee (IVEC), Festus Okoye, who said this on Friday in Abuja, said that the commission would only be dealing with the 18 registered parties it formally recognised.
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He, however, said that INEC is always ready to obey Court orders and will abide by any judgement delivered by the Supreme Court.
According to him, this clarification becomes necessary against the backdrop of various letters submitted to the commission recently by some of the deregistered political parties signifying their intention to conduct primaries with a view to submitting names and particulars of candidates for the Anambra Governorship election.
He said that the deregistered parties hinged their request to nominate candidates on the judgement of the Court of Appeal delivered on June 11, 2020.
“The commission will continue to recognize and deal with only the 18 registered political parties pending the final resolution and determination of the various appeals filed and pending before the Supreme Court.
“Consequently, INEC will not monitor any purported primaries by any of the deregistered political parties and will not issue access code to or accept the list and particulars of candidates emanating from such primaries,” Okoye said.
He recalled that on August 10, 2020, the commission issued a statement affirming that the judgement of the Court of Appeal delivered in favour of the 22 deregistered political parties is in conflict with the judgement delivered by the same Court in the case of the National Unity Party (NUP) vs. INEC wherein the Court affirmed the powers of the Commission to deregister NUP and other political parties.
He said that the NUP has appealed against the said judgement to the Supreme Court of Nigeria and the case is presently pending in that Court.
“The appeal, as well as the one filed by the commission against the judgement of the Court of Appeal relating to the 22 deregistered parties, is pending in the Supreme Court.
“Considering the conflict between the two judgements, the commission counselled that it is in the interest of the electoral process for both matters to be consolidated.
“The electoral process will be better served through a final resolution of the issues in the deregistration of political parties.
“It will also enable the commission to stand on firm grounds rather than pick and choose which between two conflicting decisions it should obey.”
