The Supreme Court has affirmed the deregistration of 74 political parties by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The apex court, in a unanimous judgment, upheld the decision of the Court of Appeal which had earlier affirmed the deregistration of the National Unity Party (NUP) and others.

INEC had last year announced the deregistration of 74 political parties on the bases that they did not win any elective positions during the 2019 general election.

The Supreme Court, in the judgment delivered by Justice Adamu Jauro, held that INEC has the legal power to deregister the affected political parties.

The appellants had approached the Supreme Court seeking an order to set aside the judgment of the appellate court on the grounds that the electoral umpire’s action was illegal and unconstitutional.

The Court of Appeal, Abuja, had in a judgment delivered on July 29, 2020, affirmed the powers of INEC to deregister political parties.

The appellate court had in the unanimous decision presented by Justice Mohammed Idris, held that INEC acted within the constitutional provisions as well as the Electoral Act in sacking the political parties which failed to win a single office in the last general election.

Consequently, the Court of Appeal nullified and set aside the judgment of Justice Taiwo Taiwo of the Federal High Court, Abuja, which had earlier nullified INEC’s deregistration of the political parties on the grounds that the deregistration breached section 225(a)of the Constitution.

The said constitutional provision spells out the minimum election victory a party must record or percentage of votes it must poll to sustain its status as a registered political party.

Justin Nwosu

Justin Nwosu is the founder and publisher of Flavision. His core interest is in writing unbiased news about Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. He’s a strong adherent of investigative journalism, with a bent on exposing corruption, abuse of power and societal ills.