At last, the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC has deregistered 74 political parties out of a crowded list of 92 parties. Both the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as well as the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended) empower INEC to tinker with the electoral procedure as well as determine the validity of political parties.

INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, told  a news conference Thursday in Abuja that the decision was in line with the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as well as the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended).

With 92 registered political parties, Nigerians had wondered how INEC would effectively conduct general elections given the logistics of printing ballot papers and electoral materials that would accommodate all the parties.

Many on account of the poor performance of most of the parties during the last election urged INEC to invoke relevant clauses in the Electoral Act and deregister some of the parties that fell short of stipulated requirements.

The National Institute for Legislative & Democratic Studies (NILDS), a department of the National Assembly, had called on INEC to reduce the number of political parties in the country to a maximum of three.

Abubakar Sulaiman, Director General of NILDS, said this at the pre-convocation press conference of the 3rd convocation ceremony of UNIBEN/NILDS held in Abuja.

He described the number of political parties in the country as “jankara political beneficiary” that are needed to be pruned because they “are adding no value to democracy.”

“For us to have a well deepened political culture, the earlier we take the course to two or three political parties, the better for us,” Mr Sulaiman told journalists.

He said most of the political parties lack national spread and strong structure; “but then they occupy space on the ballot paper, thereby, causing confusion.”

“When we talk about inconclusive election, over-voting, Nigerians in the rural areas cannot differentiate certain symbols because you have a ballot paper that is as lengthy as one kilometre.

“INEC should come up with another amendment to the Electoral Act. If care is not taken, in the next two or three years we will have up to 200 political parties,” he said.