Tag Archives: Political Parties

60 new political parties have applied for registration, says INEC.

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The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Saturday said 60 associations have applied to the commission to be registered as political parties.

 

Rotimi Oyekanmi, chief press secretary to the chairman of the commission, disclosed this at a capacity development workshop organised by INEC.

 

There are 40 political parties in Nigeria. 10 of them were recently registered by INEC following court orders.

 

Oyekanmi said the applications were at various levels of processing by the commission.

 

“Presently we have 40 political parties in the country. I can tell you that as of Thursday December 15, 60 associations have approached the commission to be registered,” he said.

 

“Their applications are presently being attended to and they are in different level of processing.”

 

Oyekanmi added that another eight groups had also approached the commission inquiring on the process of applying for registration.

 

Commenting on information and communication technology deployed for elections, Oyekanmi said the commission was working on some value adding projects in order to improve the country’s electoral process.

 

He said the projects developed by the department were expected to be launched in 2017.

#GhanaDecides: Akufo-Addo, Mahama’s parties both claim ‘comfortable lead’.

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Ghana’s main opposition party says it has a strong lead in the presidential election and has called on President John Mahama to accept defeat, but the incumbent’s campaign team has itself countered the claim, dismissing it as “treasonable”.

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) said Nana Akufo-Addo, its candidate, had won 52 per cent of the vote according to its own tally of Wednesday’s presidential poll — against 44.8 per cent for Mahama.

The electoral commission said it had not certified any results in the closely-fought race, however, figures shown by television and radio stations showed the opposition making gains.

“These are results that were declared at the polling stations. I am calling on the president to concede the election,” Peter Mac Manu, NPP campaign chief, said.

Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, a senior official of the ruling party, countered that Mahama was “comfortably ahead” and asked his supporters to remain calm.

“The results are still trickling in and the call and declaration by the NPP is irresponsible and treasonable because it can throw this country into chaos,” he said.

Ghana is one of Africa’s most stable democracies and voters have rejected the government of the day twice since 2000.

Until 2014, the country also had one of Africa’s most dynamic economies, though growth has slowed in part due to a fall in the price of its commodity exports.

Sixty groups seek registration as new political parties — INEC

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The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said on Friday that it had received requests from 60 associations for registration as political parties.

Nick Dazang, the Deputy Director, Voter Education and Publicity, INEC, told the News Agency of Nigeria that as soon as the commission was through with the processes, it would meet and take a decision.

Nigeria currently has about 29 registered political parties.

Meanwhile, some of the deregistered political parties have criticised INEC for re-registering some of the parties it deregistered in 2012 instead of all the parties.

In separate interviews with NAN, the parties said it was wrong for INEC to still allow parties it deregistered to remain, while planning to register new associations.

The National Chairman of the Progressives Action Council (PAC), Charles Nwodo, said the party would head to court again on the matter.

“We went to court at a particular time and along the way, the Judge ruled that we come with a group of political parties.

“He said if we had come as a single party, he would not have granted us, and eventually granted only the parties we joined to head to court.

“But some other parties still went to court and among all the rulings both at the High Court and Appeal Court was that INEC has no legitimate powers to deregister political parties.

“What INEC wish is that if they make any pronouncement, you have to head to court to make them reverse it. That is the situation we find ourselves.

“I believe that if an Appeal Court had ruled on a case, automatically, it has opened doors for mass reregistration of political parties; when a court says you have no right, it means you have no right at all.

“So the alternative for us is to head to court again,’’ Mr. Nwodo said.

The National Chairman of African Renaissance Party (ARP), Yahaya Ndu, said his party was not ready to go to court for now.

“INEC re-registered only political parties which went to court to contest their deregistration.

“We have not gone to court and we are not in a hurry to do so now. 2019 is coming, we will be back before then.

“However, all the ones that have been re-registered what impact are they making? When we come back Nigerians will know that this is the party that will bring succour to them,’’ Mr. Ndu said.

Bala Shittu, INEC’s Director for election and party monitoring, told NAN that INEC had re-registered 10 out of the 28 political parties it deregistered in 2012.

A Lagos Court of Appeal and Federal High Court, Abuja had in 2015 ruled that INEC lacked power to de-register political parties.

Mr. Shittu said the 10 re-registered political parties were joined in the court proceedings.

“As you know, it is part of the court judgment that ordered INEC to reinstate them, so they were part and parcel of the proceedings and so they were joined.

“The other remaining deregistered political parties were not part of the process.

“There were actually two judgments, one by three and the other by seven; so they were two separate proceedings,” Mr. Shittu said.

He said the parties planning to take INEC to court, perhaps were doing so for different reason.

He said there was a time frame as stipulated by law within which a political party could take the commission to court concerning de-registration, adding that the period had lapsed.

“You may recall that these court proceedings were not entered last year or even year before last, so the court process has been on but finally it brought this judgments,’’ Mr. Shittu said.

Political differences leads five-year-old marriage into divorce.

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A 44-year-old man, Iliasu Salami, on Thursday in Iseyin, Oyo State, lost his five-year-old marriage to irreconcilable political differences between him and his estranged wife, Rashidat.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Salami had approached the Iseyin Customary Court, seeking the dissolution of the marriage over allegations of disobedience.

He told the court that his wife had no regard for him, adding that his opinions did not count in their affairs.

He said his wife joined a different political party against his instruction and wish.

Salami, however, did not state his or ex-wife’s party.

“All efforts to resolve the issue by both families failed,” Salami said, and pleaded with the court to terminate the marriage.

The President of the customary court, Chief Adelodun Oyegbenle, said, “Rashidat’s refusal to show up in court after several summons and the evidences tendered by the husband on the political differences between them are enough to show that no love is lost between the couple.

“It is unfortunate that the defendant (Rashidat) did not attend any of the court proceedings despite court summons. This court hereby dissolves the five-year-old union.”

Oyegbenle ordered Salami to pay N10,000 monthly upkeep allowance for the two children of the failed marriage.

Leaked Letter Exposes Jonathan’s Pact With Political Parties

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A leaked letter dated January 26, 2015 yesterday in Abuja showed that the signatory on behalf of the PDP, Anenih, reacted to the six issues raised by the SDP before it could support the re-election bid of Jonathan in last year’s presidential election.

The letter is said not to be different in character from those of other parties, like Accord Party, which also got N100 million from the PDP.
The leaked letter assured the parties they would be considered as worthy participants in the PDP government if Jonathan won the election.

The letter, titled “Inter-Party Co-operation” reads: “I write to sincerely thank you for your letter dated January 23, 2015, on the above subject matter.
“After due consultations with relevant stakeholders of our party, I am pleased to convey to you our decisions on the issues and to further inform you that the president and the leadership of our party have expressed delight and strong optimism to fully cooperate and work with the SDP in the circumstance.”

On the implementation of the report of the 2014 National Conference, which Falae’s party insisted on, Anenih stated: “Please be assured that the report of the National Conference will be implemented to the letter.  We believe that having regard to the fact that the National Conference was a baby of the President, he is in a better position to implement it.  And this is what he is doing.”

On “zero tolerance to corruption”, he responded: “There is no doubt that our party, the PDP and your party, the SDP, are on the same page on this issue.

Apart from the fact that this administration has done more arrests, investigations, prosecutions and convictions of corrupt cases, the President has continuously laid emphasis on the need to develop an appropriate technology to comprehensively combat corruption and its vices.

The approach, for example, has produced immense results in eliminating corruption that was associated with the distribution of fertilizers in Nigeria in the past.”

On the battle to defeat insurgency, the parties were assured that since it was ‘‘ the primary duty of government to protect the lives and property of citizens and secure the territorial integrity of the nation, the government has consistently made efforts to deal with the challenges of Boko Haram who have established their operational base somewhere between some states in the North-East of the country and the boundary with some of our neighbouring African countries.’’

He added: “Terrorism has become a global phenomenon and fighting it requires the co-operation of not just the entire citizens but the support of the international community.  The President is working on this.  In his recent visit to Borno and in a rally in Maiduguri few days ago, he assured the people that every inch of Nigerian soil currently under the control of insurgents will be recovered in no distant time.”

On how the government planned to deal with the nagging unemployment situation in the country, the PDP noted that it was a primary focus of the then administration “considering the various programmes designed and implemented since 2011; programmes such as SURE-P, YouWin, Agricultural and Industrial transformation, including the railways that have generated massive employment opportunities for Nigerians.”
The letter added: “The President intends to sustain the tempo and improve on existing records.”

On “reduction of recurrent expenditure and increase in capital expenditure”, he explained, “This is an area that the President is not only ready to give a critical look at but he is also prepared to welcome new ideas and positive contributions from leaders of the SDP.”

Out of the N260 million which Anenih allegedly received from Dasuki, Falae has admitted getting N100 million, just as the Accord Party admitted getting the same sum from him to prosecute the last elections in favour of Jonathan.

A former Political Adviser to former President Shehu Shagari, Alhaji Tanko Yakassai, also confirmed getting N63 from Anenih for political advocacy in the north. Unaccounted for is an extra N177 million Anenih said he spent from his pocket.

Acting EFCC chairman, Ibrahim Magu, told journalists yesterday that while Isa had begun the process of refunding the money in his possession, Metuh had refused to do it.
? ‘‘From the records, Metuh got over N400 million. He has not said anything because we need the money to be returned so that it will be used for public good,” Magu said.

He continued: “What Dasuki gave Isa was N170 million and he admitted receiving the money. He was with us for four to five days and then he made a deposit of N100 million and entered an undertaking to bring the rest. That does not mean we will not prosecute him. But Metuh, instead of accepting to refund after admitting he collected money has preferred to go on strike.”

Credit: Guardian