25 new parties seek registration

Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said on Monday that 25 new political parties had applied for registration for general elections to be held next year following a relaxation of stringent eligibility criteria. The applications came after the Supreme Court threw out most of the conditions imposed by the electoral body for the registration of political parties. The court had ruled last month in favour of five political parties that challenged their disqualification by INEC on the grounds that the eligibility conditions were unconstitutional. INEC said any party meeting the revised guidelines would be registered. "As far as this commission is concerned, we are a creation of the constitution and we must obey the constitution," INEC's spokesman Okpo Sam Okpo said. "Any of these political associations that applied for registration as a political party that meets the guidelines would certainly be registered." The list of registered parties would be announced by 5 December, he said. Parties registered in the current exercise will join six existing ones, including three registered in June. INEC has tentatively set the elections for the period between 29 March and 29 April. Only three parties, including the ruling People’s Democratic Party and the opposition All Nigeria People’s Party and the Alliance for Democracy participated in the 1999 polls that brought President Olusegun Obasanjo to power and ended more than 16 years of military rule.