₦airaland Forum

POSITION OF THE ELECTORAL ACT!!!

Under Nigeria’s Electoral Act and the 1999 Constitution (as amended), the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) can deregister a political party. The power comes from Section 225A of the Constitution, which was added by the Fourth Alteration, No. 9 Act, 2017.

Legal grounds for deregistration

1. Breach of registration requirements

• Failing to meet the conditions in Section 222 for registration: proper registration of national officers, submission of constitution to INEC, national spread, etc. •Any violation of the requirements an association must satisfy to operate as a political party.

2. Failure to meet minimum electoral performance thresholds

INEC may deregister a party if it fails to win:

• Presidential election: At least 25% of votes cast in one state of the federation •

Governorship election: At least 25% of votes cast in one local government area of a state •

Chairmanship election: At least one ward •

Legislative elections: At least one seat in the National Assembly or State House of Assembly

• Councillorship election: At least one seat

Section 225A lists it this way:

a. breach of any of the requirements for registration;

b. failure to win at least twenty-five percent of votes cast in-

i. one State of the Federation in a Presidential election; or

ii. one Local Government of the State in a Governorship election;

c. failure to win at least-

i. one ward in the Chairmanship election;

3. Failure to participate in elections
Lawmakers have also argued that parties that don’t field candidates, lack structures, or only litigate without participating should be deregistered. INEC has said more parties could be deregistered “so long as they fail to meet the requirement of the law”.

Too late already maybe after 2027 election they can start to be implementing this.

ADC won 2 House of Representatives in 2023.

ZLP won 15 LG seats in Abia.

APP won all the LG seats in Rivers in 2024.

So, on what basis were they ordered to be deregistered?

Politicstoday:
POSITION OF THE ELECTORAL ACT!!!

Under Nigeria’s Electoral Act and the 1999 Constitution (as amended), the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) can deregister a political party. The power comes from Section 225A of the Constitution, which was added by the Fourth Alteration, No. 9 Act, 2017.

Legal grounds for deregistration

1. Breach of registration requirements
• Failing to meet the conditions in Section 222 for registration: proper registration of national officers, submission of constitution to INEC, national spread, etc. •Any violation of the requirements an association must satisfy to operate as a political party.

2. Failure to meet minimum electoral performance thresholds

INEC may deregister a party if it fails to win:
• Presidential election: At least 25% of votes cast in one state of the federation •

Governorship election: At least 25% of votes cast in one local government area of a state • Chairmanship election: At least one ward • Legislative elections: At least one seat in the National Assembly or State House of Assembly • Councillorship election: At least one seat

Section 225A lists it this way:

a. breach of any of the requirements for registration;

b. failure to win at least twenty-five percent of votes cast in-

i. one State of the Federation in a Presidential election; or

ii. one Local Government of the State in a Governorship election;

c. failure to win at least-

i. one ward in the Chairmanship election;

3. Failure to participate in elections
Lawmakers have also argued that parties that don’t field candidates, lack structures, or only litigate without participating should be deregistered. INEC has said more parties could be deregistered “so long as they fail to meet the requirement of the law”.

What this means is that:
1. A political party cannot contest for the next Presidential election if he fails to win 25% in at least one state of the federation. It may contest for other elections but the presidential election.

2. A political party cannot contest a governorship election if he failed to win at least 25% in at least one local government of that state.

Others follow suit.

The summary of this shows us that some political parties may be qualified to contest house of representatives elections but may not be allowed to contest for Presidential election or governorship elections in some states where it failed to meet the minimum requirements.

QUESTIONS TO ANSWER:
1. Can Justice Lifu disregard the stay of proceedings as instructed by Appeal Court (a higher court)?

2. Should Justice Life have asked INEC to remove ADC and other parties involved from participating in SPECIFIC elections rather than outrightly deregistering them across the board.

No Be Juju Be Dat?

Penguin2:
ADC won 2 House of Representatives in 2023.

Big lie

The Wikipedia page you want to use as reference was edited in late May of this year, a few weeks before the court pronounced it's final ruling.

Why didn't ADC provide proof that they met the minimum performance threshold with this your claim?

immaculatesense:
What this means is that:
1. A political party cannot contest for the next Presidential election if he fails to win 25% in at least one state of the federation. It may contest for other elections but the presidential election.

2. A political party cannot contest a governorship election if he failed to win at least 25% in at least one local government of that state.

Others follow suit.

The summary of this shows us that some political parties may be qualified to contest house of representatives elections but may not be allowed to contest for Presidential election or governorship elections in some states where it failed to meet the minimum requirements.

VERDICT: Justice Lifu was right to deregister those five parties. But the question is:
Can Justice Lifu disregard the stay of proceedings as instructed by Appeal Court (a higher court)?

No Be Juju Be Dat?

yes sooo

Penguin2:
ADC won 2 House of Representatives in 2023.

ZLP won 15 LG seats in Abia.

APP won all the LG seats in Rivers in 2024.

So, on what basis were they ordered to be deregistered?

Someone has provided a better interpretation and that ADC's failure to meet the minimum threshold of at least scoring 25% in the last Presidential elections in at least one state, has automatically disqualified the party from the Presidential race.

In short, ADC don enter relegation.

Yes, it's true that the appeal court ordered a stay of proceedings at the trial court in the Forum of Legislators v ADC, Accord & 3 others matter. But the order was belated. It was issued on May 22 when the Justice Lifu court had concluded hearings or proceedings in the case and in fact announced a date for judgment since May 18. And according to legal luminaries, a judgment can't be arrested, or stayed once a date has been fixed. So in my own humble opinion, the high court has not disobeyed the order of a higher court but whether Judge Lifu erred or otherwise as regards the constitutional provisions for the delisting of political parties after a general election is another subject matter entirely. I will leave that to the courts to determine. But as it stands, any vote to Accord in the Osun governorship election is a waste. To be on the safer side, voters are advised to choose the APC. Yes, appeals might favour the affected parties and could still go against them but remember, no one can preempt the courts and the judgments will not be written by us. VSI-A.

This is arrant nonsense

Since the law was recently amended and signed it cannot be enforced now until after 2027 election.

kai, na xo dem wipe AAA from POLITICS the exit is LOUD oo

The question here is, are they to fulfill all of these as a whole or in parts..

If it's in parts.....ADC won some seats...

If it's as a whole...well, law is law

There is an existing appeal court judgement. With Lifu, his family will benefit some day.

This democracy will lead to military taken over, Tinubu no well at all

DomPerignon:
Big lie

The Wikipedia page you want to use as reference was edited in late May of this year, a few weeks before the court pronounced it's final ruling.

Why didn't ADC provide proof that they met the minimum performance threshold with this your claim?

Go back and read it again...English seems to be a problem here...

However, were ADC and other parties, ADC especially not represented by their lawyers in the court??
WE can only contest the timing..The timing for the judgement is wrong..Election is close, party movement door s shut This will look like they want to be disenfranchised

Sowore and his party ought to have been dilisted.

He never won anything. Even a ward

If the atiku is not on the ballit tinubu has won cuz how will kano, kaduna, katsina vote

Moroccoguy:
Too late already maybe after 2027 election they can start to be implementing this.

law wey dey since 1999?
abi u no understand wetin u read?

Penguin2:
ADC won 2 House of Representatives in 2023.

ZLP won 15 LG seats in Abia.

APP won all the LG seats in Rivers in 2024.

So, on what basis were they ordered to be deregistered?

u no see say na multiple conditions?

Need to meet all minimum requirements not anyone of.

Penguin2:
ADC won 2 House of Representatives in 2023.

ZLP won 15 LG seats in Abia.

APP won all the LG seats in Rivers in 2024.

So, on what basis were they ordered to be deregistered?

Penguin2:
ADC won 2 House of Representatives in 2023.

ZLP won 15 LG seats in Abia.

APP won all the LG seats in Rivers in 2024.

So, on what basis were they ordered to be deregistered?

ADC didn't win 25% in presidential election that's the kicker

Actually any union with financial members and a budget should be able to function as a political party. That should be the base criterion. Then maybe they should have an address anywhere they are contesting elections

This is the Nigerian pendulum. I posted this on March 10, 2019.



Nigerians keep bouncing back and forth


1. Government limits the number of political parties to two, or, much later, government prescribes stringent conditions that political associations must adhere to before they can be registered as political parties (you must have an office in every state capital, etc.)


Nigerians: This is undemocratic and unconstitutional. You cannot limit the number of political parties. The constitution guarantees freedom of association. Government is trying to prevent people that it doesn't like from creating political parties.

Gani took INEC to court and won.

───

So INEC registers all the political associations as political parties. We have 90 political parties and 70 presidential candidates. There are 200 more associations waiting to be registered as political parties.


Nigerians: This is a joke! How can we have so many presidential candidates? What is INEC doing? They need to deregister some of these mushroom parties! It is a deliberate ploy by the government to divide votes!

---

Nigerians: We cannot have politicians going to the polling booths with their police and military escorts. They will intimidate voters and election officials. Their security escorts will compromise the security officials on election duty.


Inspector general of police and chief of defence staff: No uniformed security official should follow any politician to the polling unit. We shall withdraw most of the police and military guards of politicians 24 hours before the election, to ensure that politicians cannot use them to affect the conduct of the election.


Nigerians: The government has withdrawn the security guards of governor ***** because they want to attack him during the election. Hold the federal government responsible if anything happens to governor *****. How can you withdraw a whole governor's security. That tells you that they want to rig the election.

---

Nigerians: We need to do away with moneybag politicians. Moneybag politicians destroyed our democracy in the first and second republics. They become godfathers, determine what happens in the party and the people will have no say.


Babangida: Government will provide subventions to political parties to ensure that they are not dependent on any moneybag politicians.


Nigerians: If government provides subventions to the parties, then that means that the parties are no longer independent organisations. It means that they are now arms (slaves) of the government and dependent on government and will do whatever government wants.


Nigerians: Some people go into politics solely to get government subventions and not to serve the people.

INEC: We will limit government subventions to political parties that have won at least one election.


Nigerians: That means you are supporting strong parties against weak parties.

Also Nigerians: You are wasting tax payers' money. These politicians only create political parties in order to steal government subventions.

INEC: We will stop giving subventions.

Nigerians: Parties that control federal/state governments have an advantage because they have access to government funds. Why doesn't the government help smaller parties?

---

Nigerians Why are our elections so militarised. There are armed policemen at every polling unit. This could scare voters away. You don't have armed policemen at polling units in the US and UK.


The electoral act is amended to ban armed security agents from being within a certain distance from polling units.

Heavily armed thugs attack polling units and the policemen at the polling units can't do anything because they are unarmed.

Nigerians: The politicians did this deliberately. They posted unarmed officers to the polling units so that their thugs can easily disrupt the process.

Penguin2:
ADC won 2 House of Representatives in 2023.

ZLP won 15 LG seats in Abia.

APP won all the LG seats in Rivers in 2024.

So, on what basis were they ordered to be deregistered?

Their presidential election record was zero. No 25% in any state of the federation at all.

Peter Obi Dodge this bullet

All thanks to Senator Dickson and the NDC.

immaculatesense:
What this means is that:
1. A political party cannot contest for the next Presidential election if he fails to win 25% in at least one state of the federation. It may contest for other elections but the presidential election.

2. A political party cannot contest a governorship election if he failed to win at least 25% in at least one local government of that state.

Others follow suit.

The summary of this shows us that some political parties may be qualified to contest house of representatives elections but may not be allowed to contest for Presidential election or governorship elections in some states where it failed to meet the minimum requirements.

QUESTIONS TO ANSWER:
1. Can Justice Lifu disregard the stay of proceedings as instructed by Appeal Court (a higher court)?

2. Should Justice Life have asked INEC to remove ADC and other parties involved from participating in SPECIFIC elections rather than outrightly deregistering them across the board.

No Be Juju Be Dat?

You are not far from the truth.

Politicstoday:
Yes, it's true that the appeal court ordered a stay of proceedings at the trial court in the Forum of Legislators v ADC, Accord & 3 others matter. But the order was belated. It was issued on May 22 when the Justice Lifu court had concluded hearings or proceedings in the case and in fact announced a date for judgment since May 18. And according to legal luminaries, a judgment can't be arrested, or stayed once a date has been fixed. So in my own humble opinion, the high court has not disobeyed the order of a higher court but whether Judge Lifu erred or otherwise as regards the constitutional provisions for the delisting of political parties after a general election is another subject matter entirely. I will leave that to the courts to determine.

But as it stands, any vote to Accord in the Osun governorship election is a waste. To be on the safer side, voters are advised to choose the APC.

Yes, appeals might favour the affected parties and could still go against them but remember, no one can preempt the courts and the judgments will not be written by us. VSI-A.

Tinubu's plan to turn Nigeria into a dictatorship will fail just as Babangida, Abacha and Obasanjo's plans failed in the past.

SlavaUkraini:
Peter Obi Dodge this bullet

All thanks to Senator Dickson and the NDC.

Not at all.
All thanks to the master strategist who knows that Obi is not a real threat, as the naive politician is easily scammed into decamping by Kwankwaso for his own 2031 turn, hoping that Tinubu will fail to get a 3rd term, just as Obasanjo failed in 2007.

Kwankwaso is the new Utomi. The unstable character that was ADC's first presidential candidate in 2007, after Atiku led other democratic heroes to kill the bill for Obasanjo's 3rd term despite Ghana must go bribes to NASS members,



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPytmuhYDAU

lexylaw40:
The “president-elect” saw in Obi's presidential bid, a good chance to reduce the winning chances of the presidential candidate of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar.

The governorship candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in Oyo State, Tawfiq Akinwale, [/b]on Wednesday [b]stated that the “President-elect” Bola Tinubu asked popular economist, Prof Pat Utomi to step down for Peter Obi in the buildup to the 2023 general elections.

Akinwale made this revelation while he appeared as a guest on a radio programme on 101.7 YES FM, Ibadan, Oyo State, while alleging that Obi received campaign funds from Utomi, whom he described as Tinubu's "son."

The LP aspirant, who spoke in Yoruba language, said "In the buildup to the 2023 elections, Obi who had purchased the nomination form of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), suddenly announced his exit from the party.

"Initially, Pat Utomi had secured the LP's presidential ticket, but when Peter Obi said he resigned from the PDP and joined the LP. Bola Tinubu, a master political strategist, quickly told Utomi, that everyone knows to be his son to step down for Obi.

"The “president-elect” saw in Obi's presidential bid, a good chance to reduce the winning chances of the presidential candidate of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar.

"What Peter Obi didn't know is much more that what he knows, he started collecting campaign funds from Utomi, while Tinubu was giving the money to Utomi.

"This went on until Obi's presidential campaign got to a stage it went beyond target. Obi was used without him knowing," Akinwale said after announcing his departure from the party.

Obi defected to the LP after resigning his membership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and also withdrawing from the presidential race under the party.

The former governor consequently joined the race for the party’s presidential ticket, while Professor Pat Utomi, in June 2022 stepped down for him to emerge as the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, LP, unopposed in Asaba, Delta State.

https://saharareporters.com/2023/05/24/how-president-elect-tinubu-funded-peter-obis-campaign-reduce-winning-chances-atiku-oyo