The 9th Senate has on Wednesday, 9th October 2019 announced that it would reduce the number of political parties in the country from the current INEC registered of 91 parties to 5.
The development was made known in a meeting with the leadership of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) chaired by Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, the commission’s chairman.
Speaking, former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu disclosed that the number of participating political parties in election contravenes the amended Electoral Act, as parties that fail to secure a seat in the general election should be deregistered by INEC.
Also, Senator Kabiru Gaya, chairman of the Senate Committee on INEC added that political parties who failed to perform shouldn’t be on the ballot.
The existing electoral act as amended has precluded the participation of parties that didn’t perform in the last elections.
In his words, Gaya stated “We need to amend the act to reduce the political parties to a maximum of five.
This committee is really committed to reducing the number of political parties to save taxpayers money.”
While responding, Prof. Yakubu informed that the commission couldn’t take decisive action in deregistering defaulting political parties without the amendment of the Electoral Act in that regard.
He reiterated that "The commission had systematically deregistered many parties under the electoral act.
But the parties insisted that the electoral act is inferior to the constitution,” Professor Yakubu told the senators.
