The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says groups seeking registration as political parties have many hurdles to cross in line with relevant provisions of the Electoral Act.
The commission said that the processes begin with the filing of a letter of intent, up to the submission of application for registration, verifications and monitoring, among others.
According to the National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee, Sam Olumekun, INEC has received several letters of intent and no formal application yet for registration.
The media space has been awash with the request by the All Democratic Alliance (ADA) for registration as a political party ahead of the 2027 elections. ADA is linked to a coalition of some powerful politicians seeking to end President Bola Tinubu tenure in 2027.
being promoted by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, former governors Nasir El-Rufai (Kaduna) and Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers).
He said: “The truth is that we have so many letters of intent presently and none of them is an application yet.
“They must first meet the criteria before submitting a letter of intent.”
INEC regulations and guidelines for the registration of new political parties indicates that an association shall submit its application to the commission not later than 12 months before a general election in line with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022.
It will begin by submitting a letter of intent along with its proposed name, symbol and acronym, and the the commission must within 90 days convey in writing, its provisional approval or otherwise.
The commission shall reserve the proposed name, symbol and acronym for a period not exceeding 30 days from the date of conveying the provisional approval and the association shall within 30 days from the receipt of provisional approval, make payment of an administrative fee as determined by the Commission and obtain a receipt from the Commission.
The association is also required to pay an administrative fee before the continuation of the registration process, which includes filling out a prescribed form and the verification of all information provided by the association.
“Upon receipt of evidence of payment, the Chairman of the Commission shall issue an Access Code to the Chairman or Secretary of the association for download and submission of Form EC 15A (1). The Form EC 15A (1) shall be completed, uploaded and submitted to the commission’s dedicated portal within 30 days of issuance of the Access Code.
“The Form EC 15A (1) shall be submitted together with soft copies of the following documents: (a). Constitution of the proposed political party; (b) proposed manifesto of the political party; (c) title deed, tenancy agreement or other evidence of lawful occupation of its headquarters in the Federal Capital Territory; (d) register of members of the association which includes their names, addresses, phone numbers and email; and (e) a sworn affidavit by the National Chairman or National Secretary of the association confirming the authenticity of the information and contents of the documents.
“A hard copy of form EC 15A (1) and all the accompanying documents shall also be submitted to the commission.
“The commission shall, upon receipt of the online application form and other accompanying documents, vet the application and, within 60 days, communicate the outcome of this prima facie evaluation to the association. Where the application fails, the reasons for the failure shall be clearly stated, and the application shall be terminated.
“Where the prima facie evaluation is successful, the association’s application shall be processed in line with these regulations and guidelines.
“The prima facie evaluation shall involve an evaluation and vetting of the Form EC 15A (1) and accompanying documents to ascertain that they are complete and meet all the legal and administrative requirements for further processing of the application.
“Where at any stage of the registration process it is discovered that the same set of persons submitted more than one application or that any aspect of the submission is false, such an application shall be invalidated.”
The processing of the registration, according to the guidelines, will only begin if the association meets all the requirements.
“Where an association seeking registration as a political party meets all the requirements for processing its application based on the prima facie evaluation, its application shall be processed by verifying the claims of the association, including site visits to ensure compliance with the requirement for registration as a political party, as specified by law.”
