Leading human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, is advocating the de-registration of any political party that failed some minimum electoral tests. But the question is; can the electoral body wield the big stick on non-performing political parties ? KEHINDE OSASONA asks
From the constitution
The amended section 225 of 1999 constitution (Fourth Alteration, No 9) Act, 2017 enacted on May 4, 2017, clearly spelt out conditions or grounds under which the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) can de-register political parties.
Some of the conditions are; if a party breaches any of the requirements for registration and fails to win at least twenty-five percent of votes cast in one state of the federation in a presidential election; or one local government of the state in a governorship election.
The section further states that a party can also be de-registered if it fails to win at least one ward in the chairmanship election; one seat in the national or state House of Assembly election; or one seat in the councillorship election.
Risk before political parties
Political analysts are of the view that with the current development unfolding in the nation’s political landscape, it is doubtful if many of the 91 registered political parties will survive beyond this dispensation.
But, going by the fresh constitutional provision and current powers vested in INEC to de-register political parties that fail to scale the constitutional hurdle, the question remains whether or not political parties will survive INEC’s ambush.
Matters arising
Speaking on the proliferation of political parties in the country, human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, urges INEC to wake up to its responsibilities by de-registering political parties that failed to scale some minimum constitutional benchmarks during the last polls.
Falana, who describes the ‘proliferation’ of the paperweight political parties as mockery of multiparty democracy, argues that the application of the rules could see the number of political parties pruned from 91 to fewer than 10.
Supporting his claims, Falana says the Electoral Act 2010 amended by the National Assembly empowersd INEC to de-register political parties that failed to win any election or failed to scale some minimum electoral tests.
Also in apparent reference to the just concluded elections, the human rights activist castigates and deplores the opportunism of some political parties, as demonstrated in the last general election, urging INEC to sanitise the democratic space by applying the rules and enforcing relevant provisions of the constitution and the electoral act.
He said, “INEC is called upon to formulate new guidelines for the registration political parties within the ambit of the Constitution.
“This should be done in view of the fact that not less than 100 political associations are said to have submitted applications for the registration of new political parties.
“With respect to registered political parties INEC must fully comply with section 225(2) of the Constitution by sanctioning them if they fail to submit a detailed annual statement and analysis of their sources of funds and assets.”
“This will go a long way to check the monetisation and brazen manipulation of the democratic process by political godfathers.
“More importantly, INEC should henceforth exercise its powers under Section 224 of the Constitution by ensuring that the programmes as well as the aims and objectives of every political party conform with the provisions of the fundamental objectives and directive principles of state policy enshrined in Chapter II of the Constitution.”
Reminiscing on Uwais report
As a way of proffering solution to some of the knotty issues arising from proliferation of political parties therefore, the Justice Mohammed Uwais report tries to address the anomaly by recommending a combination of proportional representation and the majoritarian rule of representation at federal, state and local levels.
The purpose of the mixed system, according to the report, would entail creating an additional 30% of the existing legislative seats in the national, state and local government levels for the purposes of proportional representation
HURILAWS raises concerns
Expressing concerns over the continued existence of 91 registered political parties in the country, a senior legal/programme officer, (HURILAWS), Collins Okeke, laments the results of the elections released by INEC, saying they never reflected the huge number of political parties that participated.
He also notes that the total number of valid votes cast did not commensurate with political parties on ground, saying several efforts made in the past to limit the number of registered political parties in Nigeria via imposition of stringent registration requirements, did not work out.
“Out of a total of 27, 324, 583 valid votes cast at the election, the dominant parties (that is PDP and APC) garnered a total of 26,454,825 votes. The other 71 political parties scored 869, 758 votes which are about three per cent of total valid votes cast.”
Has political parties stood test of time?
Providing further insight into the issue, an Abuja-based lawyer, Elaigwu Apeh describes freedom of association as the fundamental principle of democracy, arguing that but for captive democracy being played in Nigeria, many of the small political parties would have grown through winning local government and assemblies seats and go on to stabilise.
According to Apeh, there is a fundamental issue about political opportunities which must be addressed.
“When the so-called small or paperweight political parties meet the requirements, they should be allowed to stay.
“I do not really look at the problems of political parties from the angle of proliferation because alliance would come and politicians would cross-carpet but as mere suffocation.
“Apart from that, we should also know that it is absolutely wrong to impose that law that says the moment you do not win election in a multiparty democracy, you should go. No.”
Way forward
On the way forward, he advocates the independence of the local government being third tiers of government.
The legal practitioner says, “If the issue of local government independence is not addressed, then it remains a major threat because a lot of governors are not making concession. They have stronghold on the assembly members as bigger parties thereby shrinking smaller parties and thwarting their growth.
“More importantly, an enabling environment should be provided for new parties to thrive by allowing a level playing ground to contest for every available seats in the grassroots.”
Observers however believe it remains to be seen whether or not at the end of the day, the so-called ‘paperweight’ political parties would turn out to be ‘rent seekers’ merely extracting value for their existence as submitted by Okeke or would prove naysayers wrong when the chips are down.
