Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced it has received 12 additional applications from groups wanting to register as political parties.
This brings the total number of associations seeking political party status to 122, after INEC announced on 23rd June that 110 groups had already submitted letters of intent.
Sam Olumekun, INEC’s national commissioner and chairman of the information and voter education committee, released a statement on Thursday explaining that details of the new applications have been published online.
The information includes the names of the applying associations, their proposed acronyms, addresses, and details of their interim chairmen and secretaries. All this information is now available on INEC’s website and other official platforms.
“The Commission is processing these applications transparently and in fairness to all applicants,” the statement reads.
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However, the process has not been without complications. One association has already changed its interim secretary after the original appointee defected to join another association.
This has prompted INEC to issue an appeal to all applying groups.
“To facilitate the consideration of these applications, the Commission appeals to associations to maintain consistency of their proposed leadership and addresses so that they do not by their own actions cause a delay to the timely consideration of their applications.”
Alongside the party registration update, INEC has also introduced new supplementary regulations and guidelines for reviewing election results.
These new rules are based on powers granted to INEC under section 65 of the Electoral Act 2022.
“There have been many interpretations of Section 65 of the Electoral Act, making it necessary for the Commission to use its powers under the law to issue Regulations, Guidelines or Manuals for the purpose of giving effect to the provisions of the Act and for its administration,” Olumekun explained.
The new guidelines provide clear procedures and timelines for election result reviews.
“Clear procedure and timelines have now been provided, the details of which are contained in Supplementary No.1 to the main Regulations and Guidelines for the Conduct of Elections 2022.”
“As approved by the Commission, the supplementary regulations and guidelines have been uploaded to the Commission’s website and other platforms for public information.”
Both the political party application details and the new election guidelines are now available for public viewing on INEC’s official channels.
