Federal Lawmakers Urges INEC To Put An End To Further Registration of Political Parties.

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Federal Lawmakers Urges INEC To Put An End To Further Registration of Political Parties.

Federal lawmakers has urged the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC to stop further registration of political parties, which they described as briefcase parties that have no structure and funding.

Senators Isa Misau and Ovie Omo Agege who reacted angrily to the recent registration of twenty three more political parties by INEC bringing the total parties to ninety one, called on the electoral umpire to ensure strict adherence to the guidelines before registering parties.

‎The lawmakers made the call on wednesday when the INEC Chairman, Mahmoud Yakubu appeared before the Senate committee on INEC to defend the commission’s budget of 189 billion naira for the conduct of the 2019 general election.

They added that part of the increase in the budget for the conduct of elections can be attributed to the increase in the number of political parties on the ballot paper.

The INEC Chairman, Mahmoud Yakubu however  insisted that constitutional provisions are being followed by INEC in the registration of parties.

He noted that the 2019 election budget is higher than the 120 billion naira appropriated for 2015 general election due to increase in the number of political parties and the number of registered voters.

He therefore urged the lawmakers to consider amending the constitution to make it more difficult for parties to be registered.

Prof.ahmoud further explained that until when political parties stop inducing voter in election that vote buying could be eradicated.

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A member of the committee , Muhammed Hassan however queried the commission’s request for 189.2 billion naira as against the  request of 143 billion naira virement in the 2018 budget and 45.6 billion naira in 2019 supplementary presented to the senate by President Buhari.

In remark at the end of the deliberations , the chairman of the committee, senator Sulieman Nazif assured that the committee would meet with the INEC tomorrow to reconcile areas of differences.

However after the consideration by the INEC committees in both chambers of the national assembly, the lawmakers are expected to cut short their recess and sit for plenary where the virement for the budget request will be considered.

It would be recalled that INEC had on Tuesday announced registration of additional twenty two political parties leaving the total number of register political parties at ninety one, as forty more political Associations seek INEC registration. ‎‎