Ex-council Boss Faults Electoral Body On Party Registration

A former chairman of the Inter-party Advisory Council (IPAC) in Enugu State, Barrister John Nwobodo, has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of applying the rules of registration of new political parties unevenly and indiscriminately, alleging that it acted partially.

Nwobodo, a protem chairman of ‘I Love Nigeria’, a political association that was earlier shortlisted by INEC for registration as a political party, stated this in an interview with our correspondent in Enugu.

He alleged that at the stage of evaluation of letters of intent to determine the suitability or otherwise of names, acronyms and logos of associations, INEC invented strange rules and, in some instances, gave illogical explanations for disapproving proposed names, acronyms and logos of political associations.

Nwobodo expressed dismay that after much dilly-dallying and alleged rules manipulation, INEC shortlisted 14 political associations to proceed to the formal application stage.

He emphasized that all 14 the associations allegedly paid the N2 million administrative fee, whereby they were issued with access code to the INEC political party registration portal.

Nwobodo, a former governorship candidate in Enugu said, notwithstanding, INEC allegedly closed the portal against some of the associations while they were still within time to upload their documents.

He stated that as a result of the development, nine associations were dropped, adding that among the eight associations that successfully uploaded their documents, six were disqualified on flimsy reasons.

Nwobodo averred that finally, out of the two that made it to the verification stage, only the Democratic Leadership Alliance got the final nod.

“Actually, only one association got registered through the INEC coordinated process. The other, the Nigeria Democratic Congress, was registered sequel to a court order. The association was not part of the 171 associations published by INEC.

“It is really not the number that made it to registration that matters. The real issue is, did INEC apply the rules evenly. In other words, was INEC impartial? The answer to the question is a categorical nay.

“The above episodes reveal a calculated design to fetter the freedom of association in negation of constitutional mandation. Regrettably, the freedom given by the Constitution has been obliterated by INEC. This is an abuse of power.

“Currently, some associations are in Court to seek redress. By the time the cases are concluded more parties will eventually be registered. Therefore, it is not yet uhuru for INEC,” he stated.