INEC Says Lacks Power To Deregister Political Parties

The Nigeria electoral body, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has called for a constitutional amendment to address the issues of large numbers of political parties in the country.

According to the electoral umpire, it lacked the power to deregister any of the existing 91 political parties in spite of calls from Nigerians for the commission to reduce the numbers of parties in the country.
The clamour by Nigerians for a reduction in the number of registered parties could only be done through an amendment of the Constitution.
Muhammed Haruna, INEC Federal Commissioner in charge of Nasarawa, Kogi and Kwara States, who spoke in Lokoja agreed that the provisions in the 1999 Constitution that state that parties must be national in outlook and have headquarters in Abuja had led to unexpected problems but explained that INEC was helpless.
The Commissioner advocated a consensus among stakeholders to resolve the issue, explaining that constitutional amendment was the only way out.
Haruna identified logistics as the major challenge the INEC encountered in the process of conducting the last general elections, saying that steps would be taken to prevent a re-occurrence.