Court Affirms INEC’s Power To Deregister Political Parties

A Federal High Court in Abuja has affirmed that the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) has constitutional powers to deregister political parties in line with the provisions of the law.

Recall that about 74 political parties were deregistered by INEC in February for lack of compliance with electoral provisions, according to the commission.

But one of the deregistered parties, National Unity Party, had approached the court to overturn INEC’s decision.

But Justice Taiwo O. Taiwo, who passed the judgement on Thursday, affirmed that the constitutional powers of the electoral commission and the reasons given by the Commission for the deregisteration of parties were “valid,in conformity with the law , sacrosanct and could not be affected by the fact of anticipated local govt elections by some states which dates were not fixed, certain or even ascertainable”, Daily Trust reports.

The judge also added that the party could not prove that INEC erred in law.

Hence, Justice Taiwo struck out the application of NUP, adding that their deregistration was validated by the constitutional powers of INEC in line with Section 225A of the 1999 Constitution.