The Independent National Electoral Commission has disclosed that only four out of 14 associations earlier cleared to seek registration as political parties met the requirements to advance to the next stage of the process.
INEC’s National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee, Sam Olumekun, made this known in a statement issued after the commission’s regular meeting held on Friday in Abuja.
According to Olumekun, the commission reviewed the report of its Committee on the Review of Letters of Intent submitted by associations seeking registration and found that 10 of the 14 groups failed to satisfy the prescribed criteria.
The associations initially cleared include the African Transformation Party, All Democratic Alliance, Advance Nigeria Congress, Abundance Social Party, African Alliance Party, Citizens Democratic Alliance and Democratic Leadership Alliance. Others are the Grassroots Initiative Party, Green Future Party, Liberation People’s Party, National Democratic Party, National Reform Party, Patriotic Peoples Alliance and Peoples Freedom Party.
Olumekun explained that each association was assessed on the basis of prima facie compliance with Section 222 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, as well as Sections 79(1), (2) and (4) of the Electoral Act 2022 and Clause 2 (i and ii) of the Commission’s Regulations and Guidelines for Political Parties 2022.
“Out of the 14 initially cleared associations, only four met the requirements to proceed to the next stage, while 10 did not,” he said.
