INEC Worried Over the Existence of Weak Parties, Call Them Briefcase Political Parties

Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said that weak political parties in Nigeria are giving it a headache during the conduct of polls.

INEC, calling such weak political parties as briefcase political parties, indicts their promoters of thinking that political parties is a joke.

But INEC says that political parties are the platforms that give governance and government to the citizenry.

INEC’s acting director of election and political monitoring department, Hajiya Hauwa Habib expressed the concern at a programme organized by the Kukah centre in Abuja.

She explained that such weak political parties are always hijacked by their chairmen and secretaries, because most of their members are not financial members.

According to her, this often leads to the factionalization of such parties, ahead of polls, thereby creating problems during the conduct of polls.

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“There is a political party in 2018 that got registered with only four members. While Section 223 of the constitution tells you that it is 24 members minimum in 24 states and FCT. Now, these people are all from the South-West, there are four of them. They went to court and the court insisted that they should be on the ballot. Of course, they have been deregistered because they are not a serious political party.

“They think that membership of a political party in Nigeria is a joke. It is through the political parties that governance and government are given to citizens. How do you think a political party with 24 people running the party can perform without a presence at the local level during elections? When asked whether INEC is overstretched and should be unbundled, she said certain duties, such as investigation should be removed from the commission.

“The moment we conduct elections and the certificate of return is issued, we have done our job,” Habib noted.