Nigeria now has a total of 45 registered political parties that can contest any election, with an additional five registered by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)
The new parties are Young Progressive Party (YPP), Advanced People’s Democratic Alliance (APDA), New Generation Party of Nigeria (NGP), All Democratic People’s Movement (ADPM) and Action Democratic Party (ADP).
The National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Prince Adedeji Soyebi, who spoke to news men shortly after a meeting of the Commission in Kaduna, said that the five new parties were picked from 95 political associations that applied for registration.
According Soyebi, two of the associations had earlier withdrawn their applications voluntarily, while the remaining 88 did not meet the requirements for registration as political parties.
“The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) held its usual weekly meeting today and reviewed, among other things, the on-going nationwide Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise, which began on 27th April 2017.
“In the meeting with the Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) and Administrative Secretaries, the Commission received and considered submissions from the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, as well as reports from some accredited observers of the CVR exercise.
“The Commission noted the challenges encountered so far, and is addressing them.
“At present, 95 Associations have applied to the Commission for registration as political parties. Two of the associations voluntarily withdrew their applications.” [myad]
