2027: INEC ‘Withholds’ Registration Of New Parties

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is holding onto the application of 104 groups and associations seeking to be registered as political parties.

Weekend Trust gathered that the104 applications were filed after the 2023 elections to enable more groups take part in future electoral activities as political parties.

This newspaper reported last week that one of the ways the National Opposition Coalition Group which is bent on challenging President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the 2027 general elections, was planning to do so, was to register a new political party to be known as All Democratic Alliance (ADA).

The option, according to sources in the coalition seems safer as there are suspicions that the ruling party may have infiltrated most of the existing parties and could use them to frustrate the bid by the coalition to forge an alliance.

Investigations by our correspondents, however, showed INEC appears not to be in a hurry to treat the applications before it.

Comrade Salihu Lukman a former National Vice Chairman (North) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) while speaking on Trust TV’s 30 Minutes programme recently, said due to the challenges in the APC, that warranted his leaving, another option was for the leaders of the new coalition to form a new party as “all the potential platforms are in danger”.

He said the coalition sponsors’ scanned the political environment and identified two clear options and that their first and best option was to register a new party.

With 104 groups seeking to be registered which verification processes are yet to commence the chances of the opposition coming under the Alliance Democratic Alliance, some say, appear farfetched.

Comrade Lukman said he believes INEC was sitting on the registration of new parties.

“At the moment, and it’s no secret, we have already raised that alarm. More than 70 groups have submitted applications to INEC seeking registration. But INEC is sitting on them,” Lukman said.

He said that there is no indication of progress, as many (of the applicants) have not even received acknowledgement.

He said, “By law, once INEC acknowledges your application, and 90 days pass without formal registration, you’re considered registered. But what’s happening is that even acknowledgements are being withheld. That’s a way of stalling the process, and it undermines the law. INEC is supposed to be an independent body.

“But it’s all part of the larger problem of state capture, which this administration has perfected. The National Assembly has been muzzled, and INEC is being manipulated -perhaps not overtly, but clearly.

“The process started more than a year ago, nearly two years. Over 70 applications are just lying there. We’re aware of the risk: that if we file, INEC might simply pile ours with the rest. But we haven’t given up,” Lukman said.

An expedited action on the applications, a coalition member maintained, would have given the applicants enough time to put their  houses in order ahead of 2027, especially as the date for primary elections may be set by early next year.

Another applicant, Barrister Okere Kingdom Nnamdi, who submitted an application to INEC on behalf of what he called the Patriotic Peoples Party ( PPP) since March 28, made available to our correspondent, an acknowledged receipt of the application, where INEC explained that it will soon commence the process of registration and will notify the association of the date it will open its portal for that purpose.

Sections 222, 223 and 224 of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution  (as amended) and section 75 of the 2022 Electoral Act, talk about the powers of INEC on political parties.

Some of the applications before INEC, according to our sources, include Patriotic Peoples Party, Pink Peoples Party, Arewa Consultative Party and Team New Nigeria Party.

Some lawyers, who spoke with our correspondents, expressed concerns that the hope for more political parties being registered may be dashed due to INEC’s delay.

Section 222 of the Nigerian Constitution provides thus: “No association by whatever name called shall function as a party, unless (a) the names and addresses of its national officers are registered with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).”

It is in line with this provision that some political associations have filed their applications to INEC seeking to be registered ahead of the 2027 general elections.

Barrister Okere, who put forward the application for the registration of the PPP on March 28, 2025, with the party’s symbol, addresses, membership, etc, said they received no response from INEC until May 5, 2025.

He said INEC informed them that it was yet to open the portal for the registration of new political parties and should watch out for when it would do so, which he described as unrealistic because it was not “my business to be visiting the site to know when the portal would be open.”

In the letter to INEC, they wrote: “We have read carefully the provisions of sections 221, 222, 223, and 224 of the 1999 constitution of Nigeria (as amended) and Section 75 of the Electoral Act 2022, and we are satisfied that all constitutional provisions have been complied with, and we have the pleasure to forward you this application for registration.

“Note that this application is made not later than 12 months before the next general election, which comes up in the first quarter of 2027.

“We undertake to pay all necessary official fees and to also comply with any regulatory guidelines/conditions by your commission, provided that such guidelines/conditions are not inconsistent with constitutional provisions.

“Kindly in line with your constitutional and statutory mandate in Section 75 (2) (3) and (4) of the Electoral Act 2022, consider the political association for registration and issue us letter of acknowledgement stating that all the necessary documents have been submitted to the commission’, while we wait for certificate of registrations within 60 days from the date of this letter.

“This letter serves as a pre-action notice in the event of unconstitutional denial.”

Reacting to the development, the national chairman of the Action Alliance (AA), Barrister Kenneth Udeze, said the possibility of registering new political parties was slim as, from June next year, election activities like primaries would have been concluded.

He said, as a matter of fact and law, no political party should be registered less than 12 months before the next general elections.

“I don’t foresee INEC registering new political parties as it stands because the existing 19 have not been consolidated and their existence is being threatened with deregistration over non-compliance with INEC guidelines and other issues.

“We need to talk to stakeholders in the existing political parties to team up; we don’t need to register new ones,” he added.

INEC speaks

INEC, in its reaction, said despite receiving not less than 104 applications for new political parties from organisations and groups, it has not concluded their verification to determine if they were qualified to be registered or not.

Senior officials at the commission, who cannot be named as they were not authorised to comment on the matter, told Weekend Trust, that the commission is currently reviewing the applications, some of which were submitted by law firms, registered associations and individuals.

One of the officials said contrary to what was being said by some persons, the commission replied all the applicants within the time frame of the regulation.

“You can see that the commission duly replied the applicants, it is unfair that even some people who did not apply, or not even interested parties are accusing us (INEC) of sitting on registration of new parties.

“The commission’s management has decided to make the applications automated and this was communicated to some who made enquiries on this. The commission will soon conclude the portal for such exercise and make it available on our website,” one of the officials said.

It was also gathered that the commission has not taken any decision on de-registering of registered parties.

“Some speculated that the commission may be afraid of litigations that may arise from de-registering existing parties. This is not true as the management has not taken a stand on that. But if there is a need to do that the decision would be based on the guidelines and in the best interest of the country,” the official said.

It would be recalled that following the poor outing of some parties in the 2019 general elections, INEC had on January 30, 2020, deregistered 74 of the then 91 political parties.

The INEC chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, listed non-performance as one of the reasons for deregistering them.

Over four years, more than half of the parties that survived the electoral body’s hammer are said to have become docile and inactive.

Many say that apart from the ruling party, no more than six others have been active while others seem to be hibernating.

The grounds for the de-registration, Yakubu said, included, “failure to win at least 25 per cent of the votes cast in one state of the federation in a presidential election or 25 per cent of the votes cast in one local government area of a state in a governorship election; failure to win at least one ward in a chairmanship election, one seat in the national or state assembly elections or one seat in a councillorship election.”

With 74 out, Nigerians were initially left with 18 others. The 18th party, Boot Party (BP), was registered through a court order after the 2019 general elections and was followed by the Youth Party (YP) after a Supreme Court verdict that set aside its earlier deregistration.

In February 2020, INEC deregistered the Youth Party among others, for failing to meet the criteria provided for by section 225(a) of the 1999 constitution (as amended).

Not satisfied, the YP challenged the de-registration before an Abuja federal high court, and the legal tussle lingered up to the apex court which later nullified the party’s deregistration.

The 19 existing registered parties are; Accord (A), Action Alliance (AA), Action Democratic Party (ADP), Action Peoples Party (APP), African Action Congress (AAC), African Democratic Congress (ADC), All Progressive Congress (APC), All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), Allied Peoples Movement (APM), and Boot Party (BP).

Others are; Labour Party (LP), National Rescue Movement (NRM), New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Social Democratic Party (SDP), Young Progressives Party (YPP), Youth Party (YP) and Zenith Labour Party (ZLP).

Since then, there have been clamour for the registration of new parties, just as there are counter-arguments seeking to axe the ‘non-performing’ among the existing 19.

Speaking to the issue, Mr Rotimi Oyekanmi, the Chief Press Secretary to the Chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, said associations that applied to be registered as political parties are free to contact the commission for an update on the status of their applications.

“The commission must ensure compliance with the law. The guidelines for the registration of new political parties are clear. And until an applicant fully complies with the established criteria, there can be no registration.

“There could be issues. Have they submitted the required documents? Are the documents genuine and verifiable? Have they been truthful in the information that they supplied in their respective applications? So, if there are issues, they must be sorted. And the applicants are free to inquire about their applications,” Oyakanmi said.

He maintained that the guidelines for the registration of new parties are clear and organisations that applied, seeking to be registered as parties, know that the stipulated guidelines have to be met before they can be considered.

A professor of Political Science and former president of the International Political Science Association (IPSA), Prof. Adele Jinadu, told Weekend Trust that there is no restriction under a multi-party democracy if the applicants meet the requirements for registration.

“If they comply with the specifications in the Constitution, in the electoral law, and INEC guidelines, there is no limit to the number of parties that can be registered,” he stated.

Dr Dauda Garuba, an expert on democratic governance and currently, the Director of the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) told Weekend Trust that political parties should be permitted to operate freely.

“If you allow parties to run independently the way they want to do it, we wouldn’t have to address some of the issues that we’ve seen with political parties,” he said.

CSOs speak

Speaking on the development, Mr Ezenwa Nwagwu, the Executive Director of the Peering Advocacy and Advancement Center in Africa (PAACA) said that firstly, INEC has no business registering political parties.

He said that INEC should only set conditions to appear on the ballot as the right to association is constitutionally guaranteed.

“If you want to form a political party you do not need to meet INEC, the commission should say that if you want to appear on my ballot; these are the conditions that you have to meet. America has about 400 political parties, less than 13 come on the ballot. There is even the American Marijuana Party, it exists.

“So political parties can exist in regions and be interested in regional elections, local government elections, state elections.  They don’t necessarily have to be in the general elections. The big trouble that we have is when you don’t have the capacity to run as a national political party. It is expensive; close to 200,000 polling units across the country and you need party agents in each of them, so to raise that number of people is an issue.

“This is why you have some political parties talking about citizen observer, citizen party agents, because they cannot muster the number of party agents that are required for a general election. So, those approaching INEC in my view, is part of the market for 2027 elections,” Nwagwu said.

He added that parties have become like special purpose vehicle (SPV) as those trying to register them are simply saying the political parties that exist cannot accommodate their personal interests so let them form new parties such that if there is fallout in the dominant political parties they can trade.

On her part, a former convener of the Situation Room and Country Director of the ActionAid Nigeria (AAN), Ms Ene Obi, said there should be a review of what constitutes political parties in the country.

“When you say you have a party, what is the structure of the party? Is it on ground or not on ground? Because sometimes people are fielding candidates and they are not there at all or they don’t field any candidate. So, what is the use of a party when it’s like that? We need to reconsider.

“They need to look at their conditions. What qualifies as  a party? And they are not doing what they should do.

“When you decamp, they should declare the seat vacant. But what we are having is that people will go under a party and then they say ‘I’m no longer a member of this party’ and we say, allow them. So what is the role of

INEC in all of that? Can we implement the constitution fully or are we just, using people? What they are doing is using Nigerians to ride and then when it is convenient for them, they move. They have no ideological base. We need to question that,” Obi said.

Reps move to strip INEC of party registration role

On its part, the House of Representatives on March 6, passed for second reading, a bill seeking to establish an independent authority for the registration, regulation and funding of political parties in Nigeria.

The bill, co-sponsored by the Speaker, Abbas Tajudeen and Edo lawmaker, Marcus Onobun, seeks to remove political parties’ registration and regulation from the Independent National Electoral Commission.

At the day’s plenary presided over by the speaker, the member representing Esan Central/Esan West/Igueben Federal Constituency, Onobun, took his colleagues through the general principles of the bill, arguing that INEC should have no business regulating the activities of political parties.

“The bill also seeks to establish the Political Parties Disputes Tribunal under clause 35, which shall determine disputes between members of political parties, disputes between political parties, disputes between an independent candidate and a political party, disputes between coalition partners and appeals from the decisions of the Registrars,” he said.

When subjected to a voice vote, members voted in support of the bill, which was subsequently referred to the Committees on Electoral Matters and Political Party Matters.

Back then

In 1979, the then Federal Electoral Commission (FEDECO) registered five political parties namely, National Party of Nigeria (NPN), Great Nigeria Peoples Party (GNPP) Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) and Nigeria Peoples Party (NPP), but before the 1983 elections it registered another; the Nigeria Advanced Party (NAP)

The government of the then military president, Ibrahim Babangida, after setting a up a political bureau, adopted the recommendation for a two-party structure with opposing ideological leanings patterned after the Republican and Democratic Party of the United States of America (USA).

Under that arrangement, local government chairmen, state assembly members, governors and national assembly members were elected with only the presidential election pending, before it was annulled.

Under General Sani Abacha, five political parties were registered, but they all adopted him as presidential candidate.

The death of Abacha gave the opportunity to start afresh and five political parties were registered.

In the current dispensation, the Abdulsalami Abubakar administration made performance at the local government elections which was conducted ahead of other elections to serve as the criteria for registration.