Supreme Court affirms Appeal Court judgement on deregistration of political parties

The Supreme Court, on Friday, affirmed the judgement of the Court of Appeal which okayed the deregistration of the National Unity Party (NUP) and 73 other political parties.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had last year deregistered the parties over failures to win any election during the 2019 general elections.

In the judgement prepared by Justice Chima Nweze, the apex court said the deregistration of NUP, one of the 73 parties, was done in line with the laws and compliance with the extant provisions of the Constitution and the Electoral Act.

In the appeal before the apex court, NUP challenged their deregistration by INEC at the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal.

The Abuja Division of the Appeal Court had on July 29, 2020, affirmed INEC’s powers to deregister political parties.

Delivering the lead judgment of a panel of the court, Justice Adamu Jairo held that INEC did not err in law in the deregistration of the National Unity Party, which filed the appeal.

The court then upheld the judgment of Justice Taiwo Taiwo of the Federal High Court in Abuja which had earlier in May, cancelled the deregistration of NUP and 73 other political parties for being in breach of section 225(a)of the Nigeria Constitution.

The said constitutional provision spells out the minimum election victory a party must record or percentage of votes it must poll to sustain its status as a registered political party.

INEC, in deregistering the affected 74 political parties in February stated that they failed to meet the minimum requirement.

After Justice Taiwo’s judgment on NUP in May, other judges of the Federal High Court in Abuja, have also upheld the deregistration of almost 40 other affected parties.

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