In the build-up to the two Nigerian gubernatorial polls slated for the 16th of November, the Nigerian Senate has faulted Nigeria’s electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the number of political parties running in the elections.
INEC’s Fault
In a meeting with the leadership of INEC, the chairman of the Senate Committee on INEC, Senator Kabiru Gaya reportedlysaid: “The existing Electoral Act as amended has precluded the participation of parties that did not perform in the last elections. Why are you putting them [on] the ballot in the forthcoming elections?”
Nigerian politics is currently dominated by two political parties – the All Progressives Congress (APC), the party of the incumbent president, and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), which was Nigeria’s ruling party from 1999-2015. Out of the 36 states in Nigeria, 19 are governed by the APC while 16 are governed by the PDP.
Cutting the Number of Political Parties in Nigeria
To save costs, Senator Gaya says the Electoral Act needs to be amended to reduce the number of political parties to a maximum to five. He said: “We need to amend the Act to reduce the political parties to a maximum of five. This committee is really committed to reducing the number of political parties to save taxpayers’ money.”
In the north-central Kogi state, the commission has cleared 23 parties while in Bayelsa state in the southern part of the country, 45 parties will be participating in the election.
A Violation of the Nigerian Electoral Act?
Placing a limit on the number of political parties that can be registered in the country would be a tough law to enact, as such action would amount to an infringement on the right to association, says Nigerian lawyer Tobi Adebowale.
The INEC chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu echoed this in his response to Senator Gaya. He said the Commission tried to “systematically deregister under the electoral act but the parties insisted that the electoral act is inferior to the Constitution.”
The Commission could, however, de-register parties based on previous electoral performance. In Nigeria, the Commission is granted the power to de-register a political party “for failure to win a seat in the National or State Assembly election” – (Section 78 (7ii) of the Electoral Act. But ongoing electoral tribunals could present a challenge to this, as Professor Mahmud notes: “At what point can we say the election has been concluded? Is it after we have issued a certificate of return or after the courts have concluded judgments on petitions arising from elections?”
