Fresh hurdles have emerged on the path of merging opposition parties working to register the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the Independent National Election Commission (INEC) confirmed the receipt of a registration application from the African People’s Congress (APC).
INEC said a group had submitted an application for registration as a political party bearing the same acronym of APC and that it is yet to receive such an application from the All Progressives Congress.
Spokesman to the INEC chairman, Kayode Idowu, who spoke with Daily Trust yesterday, said the commission will await the application from the merging parties before deciding on what to do in view of the current application before the commission.
Idowu confirmed that the African People’s Congress had submitted its application to INEC while the All Progressives Congress is yet to submit its own.
Speaking to BBC Hausa, monitored in Abuja yesterday, a spokesman for INEC Mr. Nick Dazang said it would be difficult to register a party with a name already approved for another.
“It is true that a group applied to register as political party with the name African People’s Congress (APC). And INEC has received the application but it is yet to sit down and work on the application,” he said.
He said if All Progressive Congress comes with their request, INEC “will first of all look at the application, to find out if it meets registration requirements. As we say, those parties who are planning for merger have a lot to do. They are going to do national convention and after that they will come with their application to INEC and it must do this within 200 days before the next elections. But if it is a new party there is no need for all this. The merging parties are yet to come to us with their request and there is need for them to come and tell INEC this is our request.”
Asked if the application may be to sabotage the process of registering the All Progressives Congress, Dazang said “maybe it is true, but we do not have any evidence.”