P.M. News (Lagos)
19 October 1998
Lagos — Nine political associations out of the 29 that applied for official recogntion, were cleared today to contest the forthcoming polls under Nigeria's programme of political transition.
Ephraim Akpata, Chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission, the umpire in the militarily-supervised transition said the nine parties met the body's criteria for provisional registration.
One of the criteria is that the parties must show visibility in 24 out of Nigeria's 36 states, a condition that has been severely criticised as undemocratic.
By the provisional registration, all the parties will field candidates in the first scheduled poll to elect members of the local councils countrywide.
The groups registered are the Alliance for Democracy which has been preaching ethically driven politics.
It groups leading dissidents that waged a fierce political war against the self-succesion bid of the country's former dictator, General Sani Abacha.
The eight others are the People's Democratic Party, said to be dominated by retired military generals with loads of cash to influence the outcome of any election, the All Nigeria's People's Party, dominated by politicians who supported the political agenda of General Abacha.
Indeed, political observers said the council will be a three-cornered war among the AD, APP and the PDP.
Two out of the remaining six groups registered today are the Movement for Social Justice led by the former police chief, Mohammed Dikko Yusuf, the Democratic Advanced Movement, led by the Lagos lawyer, Tunji Braithwaite.
Both Yusuf and Braithwaite tried unsuccessfully to challenge the endorsement of General Abcaha by the five infamous poltical parties that operated under the former junta.
Braithwaite, besides, led the National Advance Party in the Second Republic.
The Peoples Redemption Party led by leftist ideologues, the National Solidarity Movement, United Democratic Party and the United People's Movement are the others groups registered The registration amidst complaints of irregularities in the registration of voters, which ended today.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 1998 P.M. News. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
