Electoral Act: House to consider deregistration of parties – Spokesperson

By Christiana Ekpa

The Spokesperson of the House of Representatives, Ben Kalu has disclosed that the House will consider the deregistration of political parties that fail to submit their audited accounts to the Independent National Electronic Commission (INEC) in the new electoral bill.
Kalu stated this while appearing on Sunrise Daily on Channels TV on Monday. He noted that deregistration could be adopted as a punitive measure to ensure that political parties comply with the law that mandates political parties to submit their audited accounts to INEC.
“That is one of the things we will consider at the course of this amendment. This (deregister) is one of the things I will take back from this interaction. Deregulation of political parties could be a punitive measure, these are the things we are going to harvest from the public when we go for public engagement and advocacy on this particular bill before the public hearing.”
Also speaking on the Programme, the Executive Officer of YIAGA Africa, Samson Itodo said that the spending limit should cover aspirants as well as candidates.
One of the gaps in the law is, if you look at campaign spending, looking at section 89 to 92, it talks about contribution to a candidate, it does not say aspirant. And so, if we are going to amend the law to cover the point of aspiration. Contributions are made to aspirants before they become candidates.
“Organizations have been monitoring campaign financing, but I have not seen any prosecution that has taken place or anyone who have gone to jail for violating the law.”
“Also commenting on electronic voting, he said that the technology helps increase productivity.