Three new political parties registered

Nigeria's electoral commission announced on Saturday that it had registered three new parties, bringing to six the number of political groups eligible for general elections to be held between August 2002 and March 2003.

The All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), the National Democratic Party (NDP) and theUnited Nigeria People’s Party (UNPP) were the only ones registered out of 24 that submitted applications. They join the three parties that participated in elections in 1999, the ruling People’s Democratic Party, the All People’s Party and the Alliance for Democracy.

"The commission carefully deliberated on the outcome of its verification exercise and found the three associations to have fully met the requirements for registration," the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Dr Abel Guobadia, told a news conference. He said 13 other groups had collected application forms, but had not submitted them.

However, the head of the unregistered National Conscience Party (NCP), Gani Fawehinmi, accused INEC of "enacting the script written by President Olusegun Obasanjo" to keep out parties with the potential to undermine his bid for re-election.

"By what they (INEC) have done, they have cut the spinal cord of the present democratic process by disenfranchising millions of Nigerians who have accepted the NCP’s programme to probe the looters of our treasury," Fawehinmi told reporters.

The registration process became contentious after 27 parties filed a suit challenging eligibility conditions imposed by INEC. On 11 June, the court granted four requests made by the parties, including the scrapping of a registration fee of 100,000 naira (US $862) per party. However, it turned down 13 others.

Fawehinmi, who is also counsel for the 27 parties, filed an appeal to obtain the approval of the other demands. The plaintiffs insist that INEC has no constitutional right to decide which parties are eligible because, they claim, parties are obliged only to "register with (the commission) and not to be registered by it".