By Toye Olori
LAGOS, Dec 16 1998 (IPS)

Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has stepped into a field of political landmines with its announcement of the three registered parties to contest in the 1999 polls.

One of the parties registered by the INEC did not meet the stipulated requirements for the registration of parties following the local government elections held earlier this month, prompting, once again, allegations that the military government has a “hidden agenda” as the country moves towards civilian rule.

Ephraim Akpata, the INEC chairman, announced late Monday in the capital Abuja, that the People’s Democractic Party (PDP), the All Peoples Party (APP), and the Alliance for Democracy (AD) have been registered as the parties to take part in the upcoming polls.

However, the AD fell short of meeting the stipulation that for a grouping to be registered as a political party, it had to have won at least five percent of the votes in 24 states during the Dec. 5 local government elections. The AD only won five percent of the votes in 13 states.

Akpata justified the AD’s sailing through by explaining that the guidelines for the registration of political parties states that “where only two provisionally registered political parties satisfy the requirement … the commission shall register, along with the two…, the next provisionally registered political party which scored five percent of the total votes cast in more states, including the Federal Capital Territory, than others”.

“It is by virture of this provision that the AD qualifies to be fully registered and it is accordingly so registered. In effect, only three parties — APP, PDP and AD — have qualified to be fully registered,” the INEC chairman explained.

But those now effectively left out of the political race have criticised the INEC’s action. Even Abraham Adesanya, chairman of the AD, has added his voice to those who believe that more than three parties should be allowed to contest the 1999 polls.

“I am not in anyway excited,” said Adesanya after his party sailed through. “It is our stance that the INEC should not limit the parties to be registered”.

“I don’t believe the INEC is democratic enough in the way they are doing things,” Adesanya added. “It is a question of a hidden agenda by the INEC. If the commission allowed the nine provisionally registered parties to contest the local government elections, why not allow them to contest all the elections?”

He called on parties that have not been registered, and which have policies identical to the AD, to join his party.

The chairman of The Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) has accused the electoral body of “aiding and abetting widespread fraudulent practices which characterised the Dec. 5 local government elections.”

Balarabe Musa, national chair of the PRP, alleged that “some political parties and candidates were given ballot papers by INEC officials prior to the election and that these ballot papers were thumb-printed in private houses and were stuffed in ballot boxes on election day.”

Tunji Braithwaite, leader of the unregistered Democratic Advance Movement, said by registering three parties, the INEC had made it clear that the “corruption that has virtually destroyed the country should continue”.

Some Nigerians see the registration of the AD as a move to appease the country’s Southern population. The AD carried the south west in the local government polls.

“It was expected, but people were apprehensive about the AD as it became obvious that it is a regional party. But with the speculations that if the AD was not registered, the transition would be doomed, it became obvious that the INEC and the government were being blackmailed,” said Dada Ibiyinka, a graduate student.

“The registration of the AD is a bad omen to Nigeria’s political environment, because it will create another tribal setback to our politics,” said another Nigerian during a phone- in programme on a private radio station Tuesday.

But AD supporters who spoke to IPS said they believe the party’s registration is a good omen for the country, which has been in a political crisis since the annulment of the 1993 presidential election, widely believed to have been won by a South-westerner, the late Moshood Abiola.

Abiola was detained in 1994 by the late Nigerian leader Sani Abacha for declaring himself the winner of the presidential poll.

“It is a good omen for the country. I don’t believe a party must have a national spread for it to be registered. Parties in developed countries began as small parties, but grew gradually to become national parties. The AD will now focus on spreading if it must win more states and possibly the presidency,” Karimu Adetoun, an AD member, said.

“If the AD had been refused registration, I would shun voting in the subsequent elections. I stand for the ideology which the AD has, and I am happy the INEC registered our party,” he told IPS.

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