Nigeria’s Election Management Body, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has deregistered seventy-four political parties, leaving only eighteen political parties to compete.

According to the Chairman of INEC, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, the commission carried out a comprehensive review of the performance of all the political parties after the 2019 general elections in order to evaluate which parties qualify to exist in accordance to constitutional requirements for political party registration in Nigeria.

The only exemption for now is the Action People’s Party (APP) – which had obtained a court order restraining the electoral umpire from deregistering it.

The political parties that scaled the hurdles are Accord (A), Action Alliance (AA), African Action Congress (AAC), African Democratic Congress (ADC), Action Democratic Party (ADP), All Progressives Congress (APC), All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Allied People’s Movement (APM), Action People’s Party (APP), Boot Party (BP), Labour Party (LP), New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), National Rescue Movement (NRM), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Social Democratic Party (SDP), Young Progressive Party (YPP), Zenith Labour Party (ZLP)

Nigeria hitherto had a total of 92 registered political parties which many Nigerians felt was unwieldy.

Prof Yakubu disclosed during a Press Briefing in Abuja Thursday that the decision was taken in line with the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as well as the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended).

“The political parties were deregistered because of their failure to meet various criteria stipulated by the constitution during the elections,” Yakubu said.

Some of the criteria enumerated include failure to maintain an office in Abuja, inability to have offices in stipulated number of states of the federation, failure to win election at any level from presidential to local government and others stipulated under the law.

The latest decision by INEC would no doubt trigger a chain of reactions from the political parties and will no doubt dominate debates in weeks and months following.