Former deputy president of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, has explained that constitution amendments carried out by the Eighth National Assembly had substantially addressed the problem of proliferation of political parties in Nigeria.

Ekweremadu, who also chaired the Senate Committee on Constitution Review for 12 consecutive years, expressed surprise at a recent statement credited to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Commissioner in charge of Nasarawa, Kogi, and Kwara states, Muhammed Haruna, that the electoral body lacked the power to de-register political parties without further constitution amendments.

Ekweremadu said all INEC needed to do was to look at the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (Fourth Alteration, No. 9) Act, published in Official Gazette No. 77, Vol. 105, to be well guided.

He wrote this on his Facebook handle: @iamekweremadu.  “INEC has a germane point because the size of our political parties constitute logistical challenge to the election management body.

“More electorate now find it difficult to identify the logos of their preferred political parties.

“The ballots and result sheets are getting too long and unwieldy.  It also has cost and time implications on elections.

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“However, I believe INEC’s concern has already been substantially addressed by the 1999 Constitution as amended by the Eighth National Assembly and signed by President Muhammadu Buhari.

“We inserted a new section 225A, which provides that the INEC shall have power to de-register political parties for breach of any of the requirements for registration and failure to win at least 25 percent of votes cast in one state of the federation in a presidential election or 25 per cent of votes cast in at least one local government in a governorship election.

“It further empowers INEC to de-register any party that fails to win at least one ward in the chairmanship election or one seat in the National Assembly or House of Assembly election or one seat in the councillorship election.

“What it means is that a political party may continue to exist but once it appears on the ballot, it becomes compulsory for it to meet certain benchmarks to continue to exist.

“So, it is incumbent on INEC to filter out and de-register those political parties that appeared on the presidential election ballot but did not garner at least 25 per cent of votes in at least one state of the Federation.”