Nomination fees by parties illegal — Falana

Ahead of the 2019 general elections, renowned lawyer and human rights activists, Femi Falana (SAN), has faulted the “commercialisation” of nomination forms by political parties for candidates seeking to contest election on their platforms.

Falana said a court had declared fees for nomination forms as illegal in a case led by the late Chief Gani Fawehinmi in 2003 which he was part of. Falana’s declaration is coming ahead of the Ekiti and Osun governorship elections in July and September respectively.

He spoke on Monday in Lagos at a national stakeholders’ summit organised by the Transition Monitoring Group (TMG) and DFID with the theme: “Engaging the 2019 Electoral Process for Improved Citizens’ Participation and Public Confidence.”

Falana lamented that despite President Muhammadu Buhari reservations that he took a loan of N27m to obtain the nomination forms of the APC to contest the 2015 election, the president had not been able to change the practice yet.

“It is illegal and prohibitive to collect nomination forms. When you do that, you are excluding people from participating in the democratic process. In 2003, INEC attempted to collect money for nomination forms. Late Chief Gani Fawehinmi led us to court and the court held that it is illegal and unconstitutional to collect nomination forms after we dragged not less than seven to eight state governments to court over money for nomination forms for local government elections,” he said.