Anambra 2021: 22 political parties besiege INEC office, protest exclusion polls

Representatives of no fewer than 22 political parties yesterday stormed the national headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Headquarters in Abuja protesting their exclusion from the November 6 governorship election in Anambra State.

The parties were among  the 74 deregistered  last year by INEC.

They insisted that they must be on the ballot following a declarative judgment by the Appeal Court quashing their deregistration by the Commission.

The Commission however, rejected their request. It said the parties remained deregistered.

The  parties had on March 18 submitted letters of notice for the conduct of the governorship primaries for the Anambra poll.

But the Commission, in a reaction, said it would only recognise and deal with 18 parties for the governorship election in Anambra State, pending the Supreme Court judgment on its powers to deregister parties.

Speaking on behalf of the parties, National Chairman of United Patriots (UP), Chukwudi Ezeobika, said the commission refused to accept the nomination forms of their successful candidates who emerged from party Primaries conducted by them recently.

He added that the commission denied the parties access code with which nomination forms should  be submitted online.

He said INEC’s decision to  exclude them from the Anambra  governorship election “will void the entire process and render the outcome of the Governorship election void as INEC has willfully chosen to undermine the integrity of our Courts.”

He added: “By refusing to relist these 22 political parties to participate  in the scheduled election as Ordered by the Court of Appeal in APPEAL NO. CA/ABJ/CV/507/2020, ACD & 21 ors AND Attorney General Federation  & INEC and for refusing these Parties access to contest in the November 6, 2021 Governorship election, INEC has once again shown that it has no regards for the Rule of Law in Nigeria. This behavior is unacceptable as it portends a grave danger to our democracy.

“In view of the foregoing, the concerned political parties shall take all necessary legal steps to ensure that their rights, as guaranteed under the Law, are fully protected.”

On his part, National Chairman of Green Party of Nigeria, GPN, Sam Eke, observed  that since the appeal court judgement had not been step aside by a superior court, the electoral body ought to  respect court judgements and reinstate the parties.

The affected parties are the Advanced Congress of Democrats (ACD), Advanced Nigeria Democratic Party (ANDP), All Blending Party (ABP), All Grand Alliance Party (AGAP), Alliance of Social Democrats (ASD), Change Advocacy Party (CAP), Democratic People’s Congress (DPC), Green Party of Nigeria (GPN),

Others are Peoples Coalition Party (PCP), Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA), People for Democratic Change (PDC), Young Democratic Party (YDP), Re-Build Nigeria Party (RBNP), Save Nigeria Congress (SNC), Socialist Party of Nigeria (SPN), United Democratic Party (UDP), United Patriots (UP), and We The People of Nigeria (WTP).