Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja The opposition coalition in the country has accused the independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of frustrating the registration of new political parties ahead of the 2027 elections. One of its arrowheads and a former National Vice Chairman North-West of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr. Salihu Lukman, lamented that many of the existing registered parties who did not meet the electoral threshold of winning any seat in the last general election faced the threat of deregistration.
Lukman, in a statement yesterday, noted that given this unpleasant reality, members of the coalition opened negotiations with some of the existing parties that had met the electoral threshold. He added: “The question of negotiating the political party is the most difficult challenge. This is an area that many members of the coalitions have been engaging in different ways for more than a year now.
“Perhaps, it is important to highlight that there are many groups, including some members of the coalition, who have filed applications to register political parties. For reasons best known to INEC, these applications are being frustrated. “The only conclusion that can be reached in the circumstance is that INEC has decided that it will not register new parties.
” Lukman stressed that some of the prospective parties being negotiated are being remotely pushed into crisis mode in the same way the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party and the New Nigeria Peo.
