New Registered Political Party: Federal High Court

An unexpected turn that might upset the conduct of the general elections that are barely three weeks away has cropped up with the Federal High Court in Abuja ordering the Independent National Electoral Commission to accord full recognition to an additional political group, Young Democratic Party, having been deemed registered as a political party.

Unless some intervention occurs that causes the new party to waive its right to participate in the elections, INEC will be obliged to discard some of its vital documents, such as the ballot cards, and reprint new ones that will include Young Democratic Party, a process that may not be concluded in the time available.

The plaintiff, in a suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/736/14, had sued the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mr Peter Fayose, Dr Kayode Fayemi, Engr Rauf Aregbesola, Peoples Democratic Party and All Progressives Congress, as 1st to 6th defendants respectively.

However, the names of the 2nd-6th defendants were struck out by the court, leaving only INEC.

The plaintiff had asked the court to declare that INEC had no reason not to register it as a political party. 

Delivering judgment on the suit on Wednesrday, Justice Ahmed Mohammed held that "INEC has not discharged its constitutional obligation of informing the plaintiff why it has not been registered as a political party.

"The effect of INEC's action as clearly spelt out in Section 78(4) of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended) is to deem the plaintiff as a duly registered political party."

The court was of the view that having received the plaintiff's application to be registered as a political party on March 17, 2014, based on the provision of Section 78(4) of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended), INEC had 30 days to act on the plaintiff's application.

Instead, Justice Mohammed noted that it took INEC more than 120 days to react to series of correspondences from the plaintiff seeking to know while it had not been registered.

The court said the time lag on the side of INEC and its inability to inform the Young Democratic Party of its status meaent that the plaintiff's application had no defect. For more than 120 days outside the 30 days required by law, INEC did not come out to say that the plaintiff had not met the requirements.

The court held that INEC had no reason whatsoever to refuse to issue the plaintiff with its certificate of registration since the plaintiff was deemed registered as a political party by virtue of the provisions of the Electoral Act particularly Section 78(4), and also considering the letter of submission of application dated the 17th of March 2014.

Justice Mohammed also declared that the 1st defendant had no reason whatsoever to refuse to issue the plaintiff with its certificate of registration being that the plaintiff was deemed registered as a political party by virtue of the provisions of the Electoral Act particularly Section 78(4), and also considering the letter of submission of application dated the 13th August 2014 titled “Re: Application for Registration as a political party”.

Earlier, the court had dismissed the preliminary objection of INEC dated January 25, 2015, saying, "From the wording of Section 78(4) of the Electoral Act, the defendant has obligation to register an association as a political party. Consequences of not doing so is to deem the association as deemed registered as a political party."