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Sunday, December 16, 2012

Reps back INEC on parties de-registration

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Guardian News
Reps back INEC on parties de-registration
Dec 16th 2012, 20:59

MaceTHE House of Representatives Committee on Electoral Matters has revealed that the recent de-registration of 28 political parties by the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) got the nod of the House.

It also disclosed that the House was taking every step to ensure that whatever funds required by INEC to make future elections transparent and credible was budgeted for.

The House INEC Committee Chairman, Jerimon Sunday Manwe, in Abuja at the weekend said the House had no problems with INEC over the de-registration because it was empowered by the Electoral Act 2010 as amended and the 1999 Constitution.

He said his committee has decided not to invite the INEC boss over the development, because it was convinced that the commission acted rightly.

"Lawmakers made the (electoral) law, and INEC is supposed to implement the law and they are doing it, so why should we summon them for carrying out their duties as they have been asked to do, based on the Constitution? Manwe queried.

According to him, "we are not saying there is no provision in the law to allow for freedom of association, but those associating must be guided by law; that is why laws are made. Laws are made to be obeyed. Of course, you are qualified to be President of this country, are you not? You are also qualified to be a member of the House of Representatives, but there are guidelines that you need to follow right from the constitution and INEC has done what they did right from the constitution; so INEC has done nothing wrong," he added.

Manwe dismissed suspicions that INEC may have played the script of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) agenda to foist a single-party system on the country, explaining that both the constitution and the electoral law were made by all parties in the country, including the affected.

According to him, "was it the PDP that wrote the constitution or the Electoral Act? The Electoral Act was the product of all political parties; we had APGA, PRP, ACN, ANPP, and several other parties who sat and made these laws."

Expressing optimism that the 2015 elections will be better than the previous ones, Manwe disclosed that INEC and other stakeholders would hold talks on the loopholes in the previous elections, with a view to addressing them in subsequent polls.

"INEC has been proactive since the 2011 elections on the issue of preparations for 2015. As I am talking to you now, INEC is planning to meet stakeholders on future elections. There will be a stakeholders' meeting on December 17 to address all the loopholes in 2011 elections and they will be blocked in the 2015 elections," he said.

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