With about 80 million voters expected to participate in the 2019 general election and 67 registered political parties, it will be cumbersome for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to grapple with logistics of the election, especially the printing of lengthy ballot papers. In fact, the number of political parties has become unwieldy and will poses challenges to the electoral agency and the electorate on voting day.
The commission recently brought the number of political parties in the country to 67 with the registration of 21 new parties out of the 115 parties which applied for registration, leaving 94 awaiting processing. It is apparently against this backdrop that the electoral umpire is said to be seeking the enactment of a law by the National Assembly to limit the political parties in the country to a manageable number.
Limiting the number of political parties in the country has become imperative in view of the fact that very many political parties are not serious-minded and are not really on the ground in most states of the federation, as they are expected to be. Most of them do not have offices in many states. The officials of some of the parties are only interested in what money they can get through clandestine endorsements of the leading political actors during elections.
Some of these parties have never won a seat in the local councils, state Houses of Assembly or the National Assembly. Some do not have ideologies and manifestoes. Not up to ten political parties can be said to be serious about their quest to contest for and win political offices in the country. Why are more associations seeking registration as political parties instead of joining existing ones?
Section 40 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) states clearly that “Every person shall be entitled to assemble freely and associate with other persons, and in particular he may form or belong to any political party, trade union or any other association for the protection of his interests.”
Also, Section 221 of the 1999 Constitution avers that “No association, other than a political party, shall canvass the votes for any candidate at any election or contribute to the funds of any political party or to the election expenses of any candidate at an election.”
In the same vein, Section 78 of the Electoral Act states among others that “A political association that complies with the provisions of the Constitution and this Act for the purposes of registration must be registered as a political party provided that such application for registration as a political party shall be duly submitted to the commission not later than six months before a general election.”
Perhaps, these statutory provisions are fueling the quest for the registration of more political parties. The monetisation of the electoral process may also be contributing to this state of affairs. Some smart Nigerians see political parties as a negotiating tool for obtaining money from desperate leading politicians. Even though the formation of political parties is a constitutional right of all Nigerians, the proliferation of political parties is not healthy for our democracy.
It puts unnecessary pressure on INEC funds and logistics, and could also confuse voters on election day. We support the pruning of the number of political parties in the country to a manageable size to reduce the cost of printing ballot papers and the time it takes a voter to cast his vote. But, before a new law is enacted to limit the number of political parties, it will be necessary to amend Section 40 of the 1999 Constitution. There should be a way of weeding out political parties that have outlived their usefulness. Parties cannot exist in perpetuity, whether they are contributing anything to the political process or not.
Meanwhile, INEC should strengthen the conditions for registration of political parties. We strongly believe that making the conditions more stringent will go a long way in reducing the number of parties seeking registration in the country. Although the freedom to form political parties should not be unduly curtailed, it has to be properly managed so as not to make a farce of the entire political process.
We charge the National Assembly to propose new laws that will help to prune down the parties to a manageable number to ease our electoral process and promote its credibility.