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Yakubu: Multiplicity of parties is not INEC’s doing, but that of law

Honestly, a multi-party or plural democracy should not restrict the number of political parties. As the saying goes, the more the merrier. Ultimately, citizens are the beneficiaries because they will be offered greater opportunity for choice.

INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu

• INEC Has Capacity To Manage More Parties
INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu responded to questions mailed to him by The Guardian on the multiplicity of political parties on why the electoral body seems unable to manage badly behaved parties.

INEC now has a total of 45 parties to manage. Is that not too much to handle?
Honestly, a multi-party or plural democracy should not restrict the number of political parties. As the saying goes, the more the merrier. Ultimately, citizens are the beneficiaries because they will be offered greater opportunity for choice. In Nigeria, we often forget our recent history on the issue of political parties. The clamour to open up the political space is not recent. Recall that we had several parties in the First Republic. We had five and later six political parties in the Second Republic. We later had two ordained parties in the short-lived transition in the late 1980s and early 1990s and five political parties under yet another transition to civil rule in the late 1990s.

It appears the military had aversion for plurality of parties and penchant for either two or five parties. There were therefore agitations for the opening up of the political space to allow for more parties. Since 1999, there have been several litigations and consequential judicial pronouncements in favour of more parties. Since 1999, the number of parties has been increasing from the initial five or six parties to 45 at the moment. Similarly, the Electoral Act has been severally amended to remove encumbrances to the formation of political parties, making it possible for more political associations to be registered as political parties.

We have 45 political parties today, but remember that we had 60 parties before the last general election in 2015. In many countries less well-endowed than we are, you hear about 100 or more political parties. And so, given our population, diversity and number of constituencies, the number of political parties we have at the moment and possibly more parties to be registered before the next general elections can be effectively managed by INEC. In a general election, we have at the moment one Presidential constituency, which is national, 29 Governorship elections as elections in seven states are staggered or conducted off-season, 109 senatorial districts, 360 federal constituencies, 991 state constituencies and 68 constituencies in FCT Area Councils, which is the only Local Government election conducted by INEC. So, we have a total of 1,558 constituencies. As you can see, the number of parties we have in relation to our diversity is not too much to handle.

Yet INEC has another 103 applications to consider. How do you hope to manage the ballot paper for elections?
As I said earlier, there are countries with 100 political parties or more and numerous independent candidates. Yet, they are able to manage the ballot. Here in Nigeria, the current practice is to customise the ballot. Some parties field candidates in all constituencies nationwide, while others do so only in some constituencies. Therefore, only parties fielding candidates in a constituency are put on the ballot papers. So implied in this is a sort of mechanism for regulating access to the ballot and voters are therefore not confused by the multiplicity of parties and their symbols. You should also know that there is increased level of political awareness in the country. What we need to do is to step-up our voter education and we hope political parties, civil society organisations and other agencies of government will continue to help in creating further awareness.

We are aware that INEC is hamstrung by the constitution (freedom of association) and judicial pronouncements in favour of parties. Do you ever feel the need to trim the numbers; if yes, what are the options open to INEC?
I believe there is no need to seek for new legal powers simply in order to trim the numbers of political parties. Already, INEC has power under the law to register and deregister political parties. Several parties were deregistered after the 2015 General Elections. Although some of them were restored by court order, yet the law empowers the Commission to deregister parties. As I said recently when certificates of registration were presented to five new political parties, we shall also vigorously implement the law on deregistration. So, it is more of a question of enforcement rather than seeking for options.

Monitoring these parties is also an issue. How does INEC ensure that parties are closely monitored to foreclose misbehaviour?
The truth is that INEC is both the registrar and regulator of political parties and their activities in Nigeria. After registration of political associations as political parties, the Commission monitors the conduct of party conventions, congresses, primaries and even meetings.

Similarly, the Commission monitors party expenditure and campaign finance. Political parties are required to make submissions on their finances and expenditure for elections. INEC is also empowered by law to examine the books of accounts and other financial records of political parties. The idea is to ensure that our democracy does not become a plutocracy, where only the rich have the capacity to contest and win elective offices. We may not have been as effective as the law envisages and as we would like for a variety of reasons, we have nevertheless been doing our best under the circumstances.

At the same time, we also have a responsibility to ensure that parties commit to internal democracy. Since our elections are based on choice of candidates presented by political parties, the quality of elected representatives can sometimes originate from the quality of party primaries. Although under the law, INEC cannot reject the name of a candidate nominated by a political party for election, we will work to ensure that parties for election eventually submit the names of candidates that emerged from their primaries monitored by the Commission. We hope to achieve this by improving on our template for monitoring party primaries and committing the political parties to sign off at venues of the primaries on the candidates that emerged from the process.

Parties will also tender the same document in court in the event of litigation challenging the substitution of names. I trust that parties are taking notice of the several elections nullified by the Election Petition Tribunals as well as the regular courts on account of improper conduct of party primaries or tempering with the outcome. In post-election cases, this will not only lead to the disqualification of candidates but also the political parties from participating in court-ordered re-run elections. We have numerous examples from the last General Elections.

Also importantly, INEC has a responsibility to ensure compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act in the course of political campaigns. A worrisome trend is the increasing tendency to make unguarded utterances, some of them bordering on hate speech and hate campaign. In the run up to the 2019 General Elections, we shall pay special attention to this sore point in our political process. Fortunately, all political parties have filed their Constitutions and manifestos with INEC and we shall be reminding them to stick to particularly their manifestos, believing that by doing so, parties shall base their campaigns on issues rather than the personalities of their opponents.
Looking at capacity and ease of doing business, how many parties will INEC be able to manage if it has its way?

It is not about INEC. It is about the law and international best practice. The Constitution of Nigeria and the Electoral Act do not place a limit on the number of political parties but only provide the criteria for registration and deregistration of parties. Our responsibility is to operate within the law and to find appropriate means by which to implement the law and manage the processes of registration and conduct of elections. We shall continue to operate within the confines of the law.

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