A Federal High Court in Abuja, Nigeria has dismissed a suit filed by 32 political parties against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) following the Commission’s decision to deregister the parties alongside several others following a poor show at the 2019 Nigerian general elections.
In her ruling, Justice Anwuli Chikere dismissed the suit filed by the parties on the basis that they failed to prove their case in court. She further added that INEC had the right to deregister the parties in line with the provision of section 225(a) of the Nigerian Constitution.
While 33 political parties had initially filed the motion in court with suit number FHC//ABJ/ CS/444/19, with the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and INEC serving as 1st and 2nd respondents respectively, two of the parties; Labour Party (LP) and African Democratic Congress (ADC), withdrew their names from the case following their discovery that they had not been deregistered by INEC.
INEC’s Reasons
Earlier this year in Nigeria, INEC announced its decision to deregister 74 political parties out of its list of 90 that had participated in the 2019 polls.
Giving reasons for this move, the Commission, led by its Chairman Mahmood Yakubu, stated that the deregistered parties had performed poorly at the elections and also failed to meet constitutional requirements for continuous existence. In its statement, INEC also revealed that the deregistered parties breached their requirements for registration in Nigeria because they failed to win at least 2596 of the votes cast in one State of the federation during the Presidential elections. The deregistered parties, according to INEC, also failed to win one local government of a state in a governorship election, and at least one ward in the chairmanship elections in local governments as well as state and National Assembly elections.
The Federal High Court had previously ruled in favour of INEC in a similar suit filed by the National Unity Party, one of the other parties deregistered by the INEC in February.
This story is part of our new series on Nigeria where we analyse electoral reform in the country ahead of the next general elections in 2023.
