Elections 2015: New Party Offers INEC 2 Conditions

With the 2015 Elections just around the corner, fresh fears have emerged over the possibility of the yet another poll shift after a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja ordered The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Wednesday, March 4, to include the Young Democratic Party (YDP) in lists of its duly registered political parties.

By implication, INEC would have to reprint new ballot papers for the elections which is just three weeks away.

Speaking yesterday, March 5, at a press conference the YDP’s Publicity Secretary, Mr. Ugo Nwofor, said INEC “has just two options”.

Option 1: reprinting the ballot papers to accommodate the party and its candidates but if INEC does not have “appropriation for logistics‎” for reprinting the ballot papers, Mr. Nwofor issued the second option.

Option 2: “lNEC should postpone the elections to accommodate our party”.

However, INEC has withheld its response to the development, saying it does not have the court document ordering it to recognize the YDP yet.

This was stated by both INEC Director of Voter

Mr. Nwafor of the YDP further added its party was ready for the elections.

READ ALSO: Edem Duke Under Fire Over Jega’s Alleged Replacement

However, one very key issue to be noted from this ongoing controversy is that if the YDP’s position continues, heavy uncertainty now looms over the possible conduct of the rescheduled elections on March 28 and April, respectively, as INEC is now expected to reproduce ballot papers to bear the YDP and its logo.

This leaves us with this very alarming question: Will INEC be able to honour this judgement with the rescheduled elections barely three weeks away?

It would be recalled that Justice Ahmed Mohammed made the order for the inclusion of The Young Democratic Party in his judgment on the suit filed by the party, challenging its denial of registration by INEC.

READ ALSO: Removing Jega Would Cause Violence

Justice Mohammed said that the YDP was believed registered when INEC failed to inform the then political association‎ of its decision not to register it as a political party within 30 days of receiving its application, as required under Section 78 (4) of the Electoral Act, 2010‎.

INEC was said to have received the association’s application on April 1, 2014 but only notified the applicant of its decision not to register it on September 15, 2014.

However, reactions that have emerged hours after the judgement have shown that some prominent lawyers in the country believe that Justice Mohammed’s judgement would not affect the March 28 and April 11 general elections.

According to Malam Abubakar Malami, the law required that a political party must be registered within 90 days before elections.

As such, the 90 days for the YDP would count from Wednesday when the judgement was delivered.

For Lagos lawyer, Festus Keyamo, the YDP cannot be part of the election because of the 90 days provision.

“The judgement will not affect the election in any way,” Keyamo said.

Editor’s Note: This article was first published on March 4, 2015 but edited today (March 6, 2015) to report the recent development and reactions that have emerged.