The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has deregistered 74 political parties in Nigeria.
This was disclosed on Thursday by INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu at a news conference in Abuja.
Yakubu disclosed that the decision was taken by the commission in line with the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as well as the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended).
“The political parties were deregistered because of their failure to meet various criteria stipulated by the constitution during the elections,” Yakubu said.
He said the affected parties failed to meet the criteria provided for by section 225A of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) which include: “breach of any of the requirements for registration as a party, failure to win at least 25 percent of the votes cast in one state in a presidential election or 25 percent of the votes cast in one local government area, and failure to win at least one ward in a Chairmanship election, one seat in the national or state assembly election or one seat in a councilorship election”.
By the end of its assessment, INEC said only 18 political parties survived, including one registered after the elections and another that obtained a court order to avoid being deregistration.
Here are the remaining 18 parties:
S/No NAME OF PARTY ACRONYM
1. Accord Party A
2. Action Alliance AA
3. African Action Congress AAC
4. African Democratic Congress ADC
5. African Democratic Party ADP
6. All Progressives Congress APC
7. All Progressives Grand Alliance APGA
8. Allied Peoples Movement APM
9. Labour Party LP
10. New Nigeria Peoples Party NNPP
11. National Rescue Movement NRM
12. Peoples Democratic Party PDP
13. Peoples Redemption Party PRP
14. Social Democratic Party SDP
15. Young Progressive Party YPP
16. Zenith Labour Party ZLP
17. Action Peoples Party APP
18. Boot Party BT
Nigeria had 92 political parties registered but with the new move by INEC, Nigeria now has 18 registered political parties.