The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has said that over 100 political parties may feature on the ballot paper in the forthcoming 2019 general elections.
This was disclosed in a statement by the INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, on Thursday at an Elections Stakeholders’ Summit organised in Abuja.
The summit was organised with the Transition Monitoring Group (TMG), DFID and Christian Aid Nigeria under the auspices of the Voice to the People (V2P) project.
Yakubu noted that 138 political associations had applied for registration as political parties.
According to him, personnel of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) have been deployed to voter registration centres across the country leading to arrests of over 300 foreigners attempting to register.
”As at May 24, an estimated 9 million voters were added to the voters’ register bringing the total number to an estimated 80 million.
”The commission is collaborating with security agencies and formulating administrative procedures to check incidences of vote-buying at polling centres,” Yakubu said.
The INEC boss explained that the commission lacks powers to stop political associations from applying to register as political parties.
