The House of Representatives on Thursday stepped down a motion, urging the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to act in line with section 78(7ii) of the Electoral Act, by de-registering political parties that have failed to measure up to the requirements of existence.
A member, Hon. Francis Uduyok, had in a motion on the matter, prayed for a resolution of the House, mandating its committee on Electoral Matters and Political Parties Affairs to investigate the circumstances surrounding failure of INEC to implement the said section of the electoral law.
However, his debate was interrupted by Chief Whip of the House, Hon. Tahir Monguno, through a constitutional point of order, and subsequently described passing the motion as amounting to mere exercise.
According to him, there had been a judicial pronouncement by the Supreme Court in a case involving INEC and the National Conscience Party (NCP), in which he recalled it ruled that the electoral commission lacks power to deregister a political party on grounds that doing so is in breach of the people’s constitutional rights to freely associate.
Efforts by Hon. Toby Okechukwu to save the motion by arguing that “it is the responsibility of parliament to make laws, and the motion is not trying to interpret the law. Even INEC is complaining over this same matter” did not help.
After carefully listening to more observations, the Deputy Speaker, Hon. Idris Wase, in his ruling said if truly there was a judicial pronouncement as outlined by Monguno, there was need to be sure so that the House is ridiculed.
“If it is so, the only thing we can do here is to amend the constitution. We cannot do that through the backdoor”, he said and stepped the motion down for the Rules and Business, and the Judiciary committees to review the case and advise the House at a later date.
