Victor Akande, a Lagos lawmaker, has urged the ninth National Assembly to immediately commence work on constitutional amendment and electoral act reforms to deepen the nation’s democracy.
Akande, a two-term member of the Lagos State House of Assembly, who represents Ojo Constituency I, stated this in an interview with Journalists in Lagos on Friday.
The lawmaker noted that it was time the federal legislature gave the nation an electoral law that would address challenges facing the electoral process and reduce the number of political parties.
“NASS should know what is right and start working on the electoral act cum constitution. Let them look at it and start now because we know that the process of amending a written and rigged constitution is cumbersome,” he said.
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“So, the earlier the better, in the next six months or one year, significant progress should have been made by the National Assembly on electoral reforms and amendment to some anachronistic and out-dated laws that do not meet current realities.
“There is a lacuna in the constitution and in the electoral act. The power should come from the constitution to specify the number of political parties the nation should adopt,”Akande said.
He added that it was important for the country define and institutionalise the type of electoral and party system that would work, stressing that the current multi-party system had failed the nation.
“If we want to be a two-party state, let us be a two-party state; if we want to be a three-party state, let us be a three-party state,” the lawmaker said.
According to him, having a multiple parties was a problem for the country because it had created confusion in the polity.
“I would have loved us to go back to the days when we had just five political parties. If at all we need up to five, five should be the maximum. The constitution and the electoral act should state this categorically,” Akande added.
The lawmaker further expressed hope that the nation would get it right gradually with various amendments to the constitution and electoral acts.
“We must correct all these anomalies now that we have ample time before next elections.
He said the eighth National Assembly did well and tried its best on electoral act amendment, adding that this should continue until NASS gets it right and the amendment receives President Assent,” he added.
Speaking on INEC’s proposal for deregistration of dormant parties, Akande said that the constitution was clear about registration of political parties but did not envisaged dormancy of some parties.
The legal practitioner said the electoral act had addressed the situation and gave conditions for deregistration of political parties.
According to him, Section 78 subsection 7 (1 and 2) of the electoral act states that “The Commission shall have the power to deregister political parties on the following grounds: “Breach of any of the requirements or registration or failure to win at least a seat in the National Assembly or any state Assembly”.
He said that most political parties were not worth being called political party; hence the need for the commission to be more empowered to deregister parties that failed to meet requirements of winning at least a seat in the parliament.
The lawmaker, however, suggested that few political parties should be left apart from the two major ones for candidates who might want to test their popularity through such parties when they failed to get tickets of the dominant parties.
Iniobong Iwok
