Catholic group frowns at performance of 33 parties, begs INEC to deregister them

The under performance of 33 political parties has got a Catholic group, Justice Development and Peace Initiative (JDPI) Diocese of Ekiti fuming.

The director of Ekiti JDPI, Reverend Father Emmanuel Akingbade, said the parties were weak and called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to immediately deregister them.

The 33 political parties had participated in the Ekiti State July 14, 2018 governorship election but failed to win at least 25 per cent of the votes cast in one local government area of the state.

The provision of the 1999 Constitution states that “INEC has unfettered power to deregister a political party which participates in a governorship election and fails to win at least 25 per cent of the votes cast in one local government area of the state in the said election.”

Following the provision of the constitution, Akingbade prayed INEC chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, in a letter dated January 12, 2019 to deregister all the political parties that participated in the Ekiti State July 14 , 2018 governorship election with the exemption of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

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“For outright failure to make 25 per cent of the votes cast in at least one local government area of the state, we call on INEC to exercise the power therein guaranteed against the 33 political parties which participated in the Ekiti State governorship election held on July 14 , 2018,” the cleric said.

It added in its letter, “We considered it imperative to bring the above to your notice and to humbly urge you to exercise your constitutional power in the circumstance in the overall interest of our country.”

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