INEC REGISTERS FIVE NEW POLITICAL PARTIES

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has registered five new political parties.

According to the Commission, 95 associations applied for registration as political parties, but it approved five applications which met the constitutional requirements for registration.

The parties are Young Progressive Party (YPP); Advanced Peoples Democratic Alliance (APDA); New Generation Party of Nigeria (NGP); All Democratic Peoples Movement (ADPM) and Action Democratic Party (ADP).

INEC’s National Commissioner in Charge of Information and Communication, Mr Adedeji Soyebi, disclosed this today at the end of a meeting with Resident Electoral Commissioners and other stakeholders in Kaduna State.

Mr Soyebi, who said two out of the 95 associations that applied for registration voluntarily withdrew their request, the remaining 88 are still undergoing processing and verification.

The National Commissioner also announced that a total of 760,989 persons have so far been registered across the country in the ongoing continuous voter registration exercise, made up of 59.5 percent males and 40.5 percent females.

According to him, 31,808 persons have collected their permanent voter cards while 34,560 others applied for the transfer of polling units.

INEC also said it would decentralise the continuous voter registration to area level from August 10 to 16 in view of the forthcoming gubernatorial election in Anambra State.

It added that the same consideration shall be given to Ekiti and Osun states which have governorship elections in 2018.

The commission, however, said that due to budgetary constraints, it would not be able to decentralise the CVR to the registration area (ward) level

Mr Soyebi disclosed that during the meeting, which reviewed the CVR, among other things, the Commission received and considered submissions from the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, as well as reports from some accredited observers of the CVR exercise.