The controversy trailing the
purported application for registration of three political parties with the APC
acronym appeared to have been resolved yesterday by the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC) chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega. He said no party
with the acronym had been registered.
Three potential parties -- All Progressive Congress (APC), African People’s Congress (APC) and All Patriotic Citizens (APC) -- are at the centre of the saga.
Prof. Jega said in Kaduna yesterday that since INEC had not registered any group with the APC acronym, the current controversy was unwarranted.
He also cleared the air on speculations that the commission was frustrating the
main opposition parties in the country from using the name APC and merging into
one party to challenge the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2015
general elections.Three potential parties -- All Progressive Congress (APC), African People’s Congress (APC) and All Patriotic Citizens (APC) -- are at the centre of the saga.
Prof. Jega said in Kaduna yesterday that since INEC had not registered any group with the APC acronym, the current controversy was unwarranted.
Prof. Jega maintained that there were procedures to be followed for the registration of political parties, and whichever group that meets the guidelines would be registered at the appropriate time.
He made the clarifications shortly after ‘2Hannu Dayawa’, a live phone-in programme on Radio Nigeria, Kaduna.
The INEC boss said that the All Progressive Congress officially notified the commission of their intention to merge into one political party about five or six days ago, adding that, despite the controversy that had trailed the purported registration of another APC, the commission was yet to do so.
Prof. Jega said what the commission was doing at present is screening political groups that have approached it for registration.
He said, “This issue has generated controversy in the past few weeks. First, the truth is that no political party wrote to notify us that it is planning to merge with some other political parties until the past five days or so.
Therefore, it not true that we were notified. The issue became
serious when one group came out to seek registration and I guess that was what
made them write and notify us. But that is not the issue. The main issue is
that there are guidelines for registering political parties which want to merge
to become a new party. There are also guidelines for individuals or groups
which want to form a political party for registration.
“The guidelines for registering a new political party are different from that of registered political parties which want to merge. For registered political parties which want to merge, they must have agreed to merge and each of the political parties in the merger must hold a convention and agree to withdraw their registration as a political party to become part of the new party to be formed through the merger.
“After their conventions, they are expected to write and request INEC to withdraw their former registration and say they want to join a new party. In spite of all the controversies, none of these political parties which want to merge has held their convention.
“We only read in the newspapers that they have the intention of merging and nobody wrote us until about five or six days ago. If anybody wants to register a political party, you are expected to tell INEC of your intention by saying that you want to register a party with so and so name and you want to know the procedure for doing so.
“Only one group came. The group asked one lawyer to write INEC saying it wants to form a political party with a particular name and it wants to know the rules and procedures for registration as a political party.
“As far as I am concerned there is no controversy in registration of new parties. INEC has not registered any political party with any name. We have not gotten to that stage, we have conflicting applications, and, so far, the process is ongoing and people are making a mountain out of a mole hill. I think we should be judged by the action that we have taken, not by speculation of what we are likely to do.
“My stand on this is that it will be cleared as soon as we finished the process. Nigerians will know what decision we have taken, and why we have taken that decision.”
On the de-registration of political parties and its impact on the 2015 general election, Jega said, “We acted according to the law; both the constitution and the electoral law have granted us the power to register as well as to deregister political parties, and what we have done is to deregister political parties with compliance to legal provisions.”
He added, “God’s willing, INEC will try to do delimitation of constituencies in good time before the 2015 general election. We have already finalised preparation in-house, and we have come up with a plan of action.”
“The guidelines for registering a new political party are different from that of registered political parties which want to merge. For registered political parties which want to merge, they must have agreed to merge and each of the political parties in the merger must hold a convention and agree to withdraw their registration as a political party to become part of the new party to be formed through the merger.
“After their conventions, they are expected to write and request INEC to withdraw their former registration and say they want to join a new party. In spite of all the controversies, none of these political parties which want to merge has held their convention.
“We only read in the newspapers that they have the intention of merging and nobody wrote us until about five or six days ago. If anybody wants to register a political party, you are expected to tell INEC of your intention by saying that you want to register a party with so and so name and you want to know the procedure for doing so.
“Only one group came. The group asked one lawyer to write INEC saying it wants to form a political party with a particular name and it wants to know the rules and procedures for registration as a political party.
“As far as I am concerned there is no controversy in registration of new parties. INEC has not registered any political party with any name. We have not gotten to that stage, we have conflicting applications, and, so far, the process is ongoing and people are making a mountain out of a mole hill. I think we should be judged by the action that we have taken, not by speculation of what we are likely to do.
“My stand on this is that it will be cleared as soon as we finished the process. Nigerians will know what decision we have taken, and why we have taken that decision.”
On the de-registration of political parties and its impact on the 2015 general election, Jega said, “We acted according to the law; both the constitution and the electoral law have granted us the power to register as well as to deregister political parties, and what we have done is to deregister political parties with compliance to legal provisions.”
He added, “God’s willing, INEC will try to do delimitation of constituencies in good time before the 2015 general election. We have already finalised preparation in-house, and we have come up with a plan of action.”
Source: Leadership
No comments:
Post a Comment