The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has unveiled a new political party known as the Youth Party (YP), News About Nigeria reports.
This was revealed by the National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee of INEC, Festus Okoye on Thursday.
With Youth Party’s registration, there are now 19 legal political parties in Nigeria.
In February 2020, three years before the presidential and gubernatorial elections, the electoral umpire deregistered 74 political parties.
They were deregistered due to their poor performance in the 2019 presidential and governorship elections including re-runs.
INEC boss, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, said that besides the current law for registering political parties, a change made to Section 225(a) of the 1999 Constitution gives INEC the power to remove or cancel the registration of political parties.
During the 2019 general elections, 91 political parties participated, and following the elections, one more party, the Boot Party, was registered based on a court order.
The Youth Party (YP) was first registered in 2018 after a court judgment.
When INEC wanted to remove some parties, the Youth Party went to court and got an order to stay registered.
INEC appealed, and the Court of Appeal canceled the order, but the Youth Party appealed to the Supreme Court and won.
Now, based on the Supreme Court’s decision, INEC has officially recognized the Youth Party as the 19th Political Party in Nigeria, giving it the same rights as other parties.
Recall that on Wednesday, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) carried out its examination of the general elections in 2023.
