Court of Appeal, Abuja Division, on Wednesday, affirmed the powers of the National Independent National Electoral Commission to deregister political parties.
Justice Mohammed Idris, while delivering the lead judgment of a panel of the court, held that INEC did not err in law in the deregistration of the National Unity Party, which filed the appeal.
The appellate court upheld the judgment of Justice Taiwo Taiwo of the Federal High Court in Abuja, which had earlier in May cancelled the deregistration of NUP and 73 other political parties for breaching Section 225(a)of the 1999 Constitution.
The court said the constitutional provision spells out the minimum election victory a party must record or percentage of votes it must poll to continue to operate as a registered political party.
While deregistering the 74 affected political parties in February, INEC had stated that they failed to meet the minimum requirement.
Following Justice Taiwo’s judgment on NUP in May, other judges of the Federal High Court in Abuja have affirmed the deregistration of almost 40 other affected parties.