MULTIPLICITY OF POLITICAL PARTIES

There is need to look at the criteria for political party registration as proliferation is counterproductive

Beyond the logistical nightmare of administering such elections without creating room for endless litigations, there is also the small detail that a largely illiterate electorate will find it difficult making informed choices in a situation where too many parties and candidates are on the ballot

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu last Wednesday presented certificates of registration to 23 new political parties. With 68 already registered, that brings the total number of political parties that will contest the 2019 general elections to 91. While INEC doesn’t seem concerned about the growing farce in which every politician now establishes their own political party, critical stakeholders are worried by the cost implications as well as its knuckle-down effects on our democracy. An unwieldy number of parties is also a source of confusion and distraction to the electorate who will spend much time locating the parties to vote for. While defending the election budget before the National Assembly last week, INEC chairman, Prof Yakubu said the cost of conducting the 2019 election has risen considerably when compared with previous elections because 91 political parties will be on the ballot, a figure he said could rise in the months ahead, as the commission still has 140 applications for party registration pending. Yet, a situation where parties come into existence only at election seasons and die off afterwards can hardly contribute to national development. Nor can such parties that are not founded on any ideals or ideas become instruments of national stability let alone tolerable governance.

While, as we have argued on this page, it is good to have a liberal law that, at least on the surface, encourages popular participation, it is also important for all the relevant stakeholders, including the media, civil society and National Assembly to understand the full implications of having too many political parties on the ballot in an environment such as ours. Beyond the logistical nightmare of administering such elections without creating room for endless litigations, there is also the small detail that a largely illiterate electorate will find it difficult making informed choices in a situation where too many parties and candidates are on the ballot.

As things stand, the schedule of INEC for the 2019 general elections is already hectic. Less than six months from now, there will be a presidential election; governorship elections in 29 states; senatorial elections in 109 districts nationwide; House of Representatives election in 360 federal constituencies; Houses of Assembly election in 991 constituencies and with the Federal Capital Territory election also due, the commission will conduct polls for six area council chairmanships and 62 councillorship positions.

In a milieu where politics is a do-or-die affair and where politicians fight elections almost like wars, how will INEC cope with an unwieldy number of parties most of them representing no more than the personal interests of the promoters? Besides, under the Electoral Act 2010, the parties must submit the list of their candidates 60 days to election while INEC is charged with the additional responsibility of monitoring their primaries.

Since most of our politicians rely on technicalities to win at the court what they lose at the polls, INEC has been burdened with repeat elections that are needless and that trend can only multiply as the number of political parties and candidates increase. Under what is termed “unlawful exclusion”, for instance, elections can be nullified for so many things, including a wrong spelling of names, even if such candidates have no electoral value.

Perhaps no election exemplified the mess called unwholesome proliferation of political parties than the 2011 elections when some 20 political parties out of the then 68 registered ones fielded presidential candidates. At the end, only four parties made some impression. The rest scored less than one per cent of the votes.

Even if people have the right to form political parties, proliferation is counterproductive to our democracy, especially when they are not built around any ideology or interest group, but more as “business ventures”. And from past experience, many of them are unlikely to exert any remarkable influence good enough to win elections. That then explains why the nation must recover its senses and we urge the National Assembly to begin to look at the enabling laws. A situation where every politician believes they must have their own political party is antithetical to the growth of genuine democracy in our country.