Independent National Electoral Commission has said opposition parties considering a merger must meet the conditions stipulated in the 1999 Constitution and the Electoral Act before they can be registered as a new party.

Speaking to our correspondent on the telephone on Friday, the Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Mr. Kayode Idowu, said any party that planned to contest an election must have been on INEC’s record long before the commission issues a notice on the election.

Idowu however said the law did not stipulate how long the party must have been registered before the commission issues the notice.

He said, “The constitution has stated clearly how parties should be registered. The law also provides for when INEC must serve notice of elections. Section 25 of the Electoral Act says INEC should issue a notice of election 90 days before an election.

“If a political party is to participate in an election, the party has to be on INEC’s register before INEC issues such notice. If a party is not on INEC’s register by the time the commission issues a notice, such political party cannot contest in that same election.”

He added that under Sections 222 to 225 of the 1999 Constitution, political parties cannot approach the commission for re-registration or registration as another party.

He said, “If political parties want to form a merger and they coalesce into an association, they would come to INEC with the identity of that association they have coalesced into not with their individual identities.

“The constitution stipulates the conditions that associations must meet before they can be registered as political parties. Once they meet the conditions, they are eligible for registration.”

Section 222 of the 1999 Constitution states that, “No association by whatever name called shall function as a party, unless the names and addresses of its national officers are registered with the Independent National Electoral Commission.

“The membership of the association is open to every citizen of Nigeria irrespective of his place of origin, circumstance of birth, sex, religion or ethnic grouping.

“A copy of its constitution is registered in the principal office of the INEC in such form as may be prescribed by the INEC; any alteration in its registered constitution is also registered in the principal office of the Independent National Electoral Commission within 30 days of the making of such alteration

“The name of the association, its symbol or logo does not contain any ethnic or religious connotation or give the appearance that the activities of the association are confined to a part only of the geographical area of Nigeria; and the headquarters of the association is situated in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.”

The major opposition parties, the All Nigeria Peoples Party, the Action Congress of Nigeria, and the Congress for Progressive Change, are nursing a merger plan in order to tackle the ruling Peoples Democratic Party in the 2015 general elections.


.http://www.punchng.com/news/inec-gives-conditions-for-opposition-parties-merger/

I think this makes sense - and is actually a big help to them.
And it calls on the "merging" parties to wake up and get moving.
It will be unconscionable for these parties to let the same confusion of 2011 overtake them in 2015.

Good idea

Don't Vote merger party, the stakeholder from different platform would want to have a say ,in a long-run.

It seems inec want to push them into merger quickly, what we don't know is wether it's for their own good or bad only God, inec, pdp and themself knows.

. okay naw...so dat at tha end of tha day we wud have
ju$t 3 to 5 p-parties ba, betta!!

Noted.
Oya parties start geting married

aare07: Don't Vote merger party, the stakeholder from different platform would want to have a say ,in a long-run.

Don't look at the disavantages only. A step needs to be considered when the advantages are more than the disadvantages.

For me, I SAY YES,it works for me!

Of what use is a Merger to me if the 'leadership' is still corrupt

Its not all about political parties. Nigerian politicians are heartless leaders. In all the political parties mentioned above, we've tested leadership from them all.. The same crop or their nutured accomplices are still in the race today.


Its just a 'political battle' at the expense of the masses.

PDP Leaders; Jega, whahala dey ooo, you know say if these people merge dem go commot us for federal and you know say dem go commot you self be dat, you self know say dem dey beef you.

JEGA; dem mama, no worry joor, wey i don delete some of them?, i nor go let dem marry, constitution don dey na, leave them for me.

PDP Leaders; I believe you, ride on we dey your back.

Buhari is getting more desperate by d day. Aligning wt figures lyk Attahiru Bafarawa & Bola Tinubu n xpectn discerning Nigerians to take his anti corruption stance serious.
He shld 4get abt ds merger ,work wt Pastor Bakare to make incursions into southern Nigeria nd face 2015. Bt i think Buhari just dnt give a damn abt southern Nigeria nd wants d oda parties 2 canvass for votes for him in d south. Ds is d thrust of ds merger & it wnt work cos d oda parties are also relying on hz strenght in d north. At d end of d day suspicion, tall ambitions & ego will definitely work agenst ds merger.

I will advise cpc/buhari against the merger. Its becoming clear by the day that people are tired of gej. Buhari should stick with bakare. This will furhter enhance his anti-corruption stance and prevent the impression of get power by all means. Not in support of merger cos the selfish interest of political parties will hinder it success.

O.k! We haff hear NEXT!!

PDP is still d party to beat come 2015, whichever party dat wants to oust dem has to do a lot of work. Good luck to the merging Parties though.

Hehehehehehahahahah......
Imagine Buhari/Tinubu for president and vice-president Ribadu senate president.....
Tunde bakari speaker house of assembly.......
Fashola Fiancé minister

The ACN/ANPP/CPC merger is already a big failure to me. PDP being the largest party in africa and holding 22 states of the Nigerian federation can not be brought down unless God says so. Our efforts to bring them down would be worthless without God's approval. What we should be concerned about is to bring down the bad leaders. PDP produced Akpabio, Sullivan, Liyel, Amaechi e.t.c, are they not good in their various works? Even if the merger works, 36-22=14, PDP with 22, merger with 14. How does that beat PDP? Please be wise and know where you are heading to rather than being unrealistic and biased because you like ACN due to Yoruba majority or ANPP/CPC due to Hausa/fulani Majority. PDP is the only WAZOBIA party 4 now without anyone being majority, the south is represented, the north is represented as well, Simple. Fight the bad leaders and forget about their party affilation.

princemolak: who cares if they Merge,all we want is good Goverance,abeg here is my own business jawe www.efiweblog.info

Damn right, seems to me this people are more concerned on crushin PDP becos they want to stroke their egos than raisin the standard of living of nigerians.

Inec, by providing this info is moving quick to prevent unnecessary confusion and litigation from political parties which we see when election approaches.This is a goog move by inec.

as i am talking to you now ,i am strongly convince that 2015 election is on already, the rulling party pdp is pushing inec and inec is pushing all political parties seeking menger , to enhance pdp chance of starting their underground strategy to wristle the newly formed party .this reveal plan is also to know those aggrieve pdp members who are realdy to decamp to the newly formed party, and pdp can start their underground within those members as well,because we have some pdp members that are eating from the system but seem to be dumping the party in injuring time .those parties that are about to be merge are facing serious confussion now,that is the handwork of pdp if you look at the different fraction that we ve in cpc,this is just their dirty political strategy

Slizbeat: The ACN/ANPP/CPC merger is already a big failure to me. PDP being the largest party in africa and holding 22 states of the Nigerian federation can not be brought down unless God says so. Our efforts to bring them down would be worthless without God's approval. What we should be concerned about is to bring down the bad leaders. PDP produced Akpabio, Sullivan, Liyel, Amaechi e.t.c, are they not good in their various works? Even if the merger works, 36-22=14, PDP with 22, merger with 14. How does that beat PDP? Please be wise and know where you are heading to rather than being unrealistic and biased because you like ACN due to Yoruba majority or ANPP/CPC due to Hausa/fulani Majority. PDP is the only WAZOBIA party 4 now without anyone being majority, the south is represented, the north is represented as well, Simple. Fight the bad leaders and forget about their party affilation.

1000000000000000000 Likes

The beauty of democracy is havin a bouyant opposition and possible alternative to the rulling party. However, when you take a german engine from a VW, mate it to a malaysian gearbox from a Hyundai and source the clutch from Toyota, what you get is an automobile that u will continually push but not enjoy driving.

From wat INEC/Constitution says above, despite a merger, ACN, ANPP and CPC will still remain registered (backup). In which case, u r bound to find a sizeable portion of the parties members who r against the merger, remainin in their original guise/party, just like when ACN was formed and a good number still lagged behind in AD. I think even with 100% migration, its still goin to be a tough task unseatin pdp at Aso Rock, let alone with ppl left behind. The only thing that can defeat pdp is pdp. Even at the state level (lagos excepted), was it not pdp that defeated pdp?

An advice 4 CPC/ACN/ANPP seeking merger is dt dey shud nt b expecting positive result as soon as possiple; say 2015. ds merger can work only after a very long tym after much amendments n consideration of so many lapses dt wl evolve immediately after their merger.

Advice 2 Buhari is dt ds merger can not n wil neva land him 2 Nigerian presidency. Nigerian political history hd evolved 2an xtent dt OLD CARGOES lyk him are no longer on d list of Nigeria Possible Presidents(NPP). He shud dedicate his tym mor on sm oda useful thngz 4 d wel being of his people;nt dt he wl leave politics bt he shud b @ d realm of affairs of their party whr his past political experinces wl b most useful 2d future, young n vibrant politicians.

From US political history,ds immediate merger wl leave dem al dumbstruck.

d news mayb PDP's alleged means of enhancing der coalescence.

BEWARE!!!

The only assurance of a stable democracy is a credible and strong opposition party. We don't have it. This merger won't give a strong opposition either. Why? Bc the people in the opposition parties are also as greedy and corrupt as the pDP politicians they want to remove. That greed won't let them merge to form a credible and formidable opposition.

If I were buhari( thank God I'm not) I would concentrate of building up the CPC and make it a model for the nation. Nigerians are so starved of leadership that they would quickly jump into CPC if they notice quality leadership in it.

Slizbeat: The ACN/ANPP/CPC merger is already a big failure to me. PDP being the largest party in africa and holding 22 states of the Nigerian federation can not be brought down unless God says so. Our efforts to bring them down would be worthless without God's approval. What we should be concerned about is to bring down the bad leaders. PDP produced Akpabio, Sullivan, Liyel, Amaechi e.t.c, are they not good in their various works? Even if the merger works, 36-22=14, PDP with 22, merger with 14. How does that beat PDP? Please be wise and know where you are heading to rather than being unrealistic and biased because you like ACN due to Yoruba majority or ANPP/CPC due to Hausa/fulani Majority. PDP is the only WAZOBIA party 4 now without anyone being majority, the south is represented, the north is represented as well, Simple. Fight the bad leaders and forget about their party affilation.

u b full..big one

erayo2GCA:

u b full..big one

no be full na mugu, him be learner.

The ACN/ANPP/CPC merger is already a big failure to me. PDP being the largest party in africa and holding 22 states of the Nigerian federation can not be brought down unless God says so. Our efforts to bring them down would be worthless without God's approval. What we should be concerned about is to bring down the bad leaders. PDP produced Akpabio, Sullivan, Liyel, Amaechi e.t.c, are they not good in their various works? Even if the merger works, 36-22=14, PDP with 22, merger with 14. How does that beat PDP? Please be wise and know where you are heading to rather than being unrealistic and biased because you like ACN due to Yoruba majority or ANPP/CPC due to Hausa/fulani Majority. PDP is the only WAZOBIA party 4 now without anyone being majority, the south is represented, the north is represented as well, Simple. Fight the bad leaders and forget about their party affilation.

Wise saying my brother

koruji:
It will be unconscionable for these parties to let the same confusion of 2011 overtake them in 2015.

Ask yourself what led to the confusion in the first place,was it not ego ,distrust/suspicion and personal ambition that marred the attempted merger.
Are the above ills not still with the whole lot?

Truth be told,the leaders of the intending parties,i.e ACN and CPC are very strange bed fellows with very diffrent agenda.Whilst the CPC is led by hypocritical,self-righteous religious bigots,ACN is led by very criminally minded fake progressives,whose only agenda in politics is to enlarge the frontiers of their fiefdom

Lagos_Boi:

no be full na mugu, him be learner.

eiya, truth bitter o0, chai, e pain una o0. Sorry eh, go colect more money so that u go share pple wey go vote 4 d MERGER.