State Assembly/FCT March 2
Confirms APDP request for registration
By Emeka Nze
Abuja
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said at the last count, associations seeking to become full-fledged political parties have risen to 84, even as it announced dates for the 2019 general elections.
Among those seeking registration as political parties, the commission disclosed, is the Advanced Peoples Democratic Party (APDP), purportedly being sponsored by a faction of the crisis-ravaged Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
National Commissioner, Prince Solomon Soyebi, who addressed newsmen yesterday, flanked by his colleagues, Mohammed Haruna and Okey Ibeanu, was, however, silent on sponsors of the associations.
Nevertheless, he said the commission is still at the stage of studying the numerous applications to determine those that have met the criteria for party registration.
This comes as the commission declared that the 2019 Presidential and National Assembly elections will hold on February 16, while that of the Governorship and House of Assembly come up on March 2019.
Soyebi added that the registration process of the political associations, are at different stages, but declined to disclose their sponsors.
Explaining why the dates for the 2019 elections were announced, Soyebi said, “our democracy is maturing and the commission believes that there should be certainty with regard to the timetable for elections. “For instance, in the United States, general elections always hold on the second Tuesday of November in the election year. In Ghana, it’s the 7th of December of the election year, while in other places like Mexico, Norway, Sweden, Costa Rica and Switzerland, the dates are also known in advance.
“In Nigeria, the constitution provides for elections to hold not earlier than 150 days and not later than 30 days to the end of the incumbent’s tenure.
In order to ensure certainty in our dates for elections, and to allow for proper planning by the Commission, political parties, security agencies, candidates and all stakeholders, the Commission has decided to fix the date for the National Elections for the third Saturday in February of the election year, followed by State elections two weeks later
“To that extent, the 2019 Presidential and National Assembly elections will hold on Saturday, 16th February, 2019, while the Governorship/State Assembly/Federal Capital Territory Area Council Elections will hold on Saturday, 2nd March, 2019.”
He also disclosed that the commission has also received a report from the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) of the Federation, “informing us that 23 Electoral Officers indicted over the investigation into the 10th December Rivers Re-run elections have been charged to court.”
He continued “The Commission has repeatedly said that it will cooperate with security agencies for the prosecution of any of our staff found to have violated the integrity of the electoral process.
“Accordingly, at our meeting today, the Commission decided to apply the provisions of the INEC Terms and Conditions of Service to all those charged to court, since it constitutes gross misconduct.
The penalty for this is interdiction. All the 23 Electoral Officers will be placed on half salary and will not report for duty pending the determination of their respective cases by the court.
“You will recall that last week, we informed you that a decision would be taken this week on the recommendation by the Disciplinary Committee on staff members indicted by the EFCC Report for misconduct during the 2015 General Elections.
However, in view of the fact that some of the staff are also among those being prosecuted by the DPP, the Commission has decided to defer its decision on the EFCC Report to enable us reconcile the EFCC/DPP reports.”
He stated that the commission will on March 14, meet with political parties, and on March 15 meet with Civil Society Organisations.
Soyebi added that the commission will also meet the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES), on March 17 and the media organisations on March 21.