The YDP , which said it had no plan to scuttle the forthcoming elections, stated that it would only wave its insistence on contesting the elections, if INEC assured that it would not be deregistered after the general elections.
It also said that it would this week file a suit against the elections of the Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose and his Osun State counterpart, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, because of its exclusion from participating in governorship polls in the two states.
The YDP explained that at the time the two elections were held, it was already a political party.
The party, which will hold its national convention on March 27, a day to the presidential poll, had insisted that it would contest the general elections.
There have been concerns that the YDP's insistence on fielding candidates for the elections will scuttle the polls as INEC has already printed ballot paper, which does not contain the new party.
The YDP on Saturday said did not have any alliance with the Peoples Democratic Party or the All Progressives Congress for the purpose of scuttling the polls.
One of the lawyers of the party, Mr. Ugo Nwofor, told one of our correspondents on Saturday that the party's insistence on participating in the forthcoming elections was to avert possible deregistration of the party in the future.
Nwofor said that the party was apprehensive that INEC could turn around to deregister it if it fails to win any of the presidential, governorship, national and state legislative elections as clearly provided in section 78(7) of the Electoral Act.
Nwofor said, "We don't want to scuttle the election. Let me tell you why we are interested in contesting election. Section 78(7) of the Electoral Act says if a party fails to win presidential election, governorship election or a seat in the Senate, House of Representatives or the House of Assembly, INEC can deregister you. So if we don't participate in the election at all, INEC can come back and deregister us
"Unless INEC is coming out with a bond that they won't touch us. We don't have any plan to scuttle the election. We just want to participate in the election so that we can remain as a political party.
"Not talking to us is not helping anybody. We are more interested in retaining our registration than in participating in us. We are suspecting that they want to use that to deregister us.
"We do not want to scuttle the elections. It could be what PDP wants or what APC wants but we will not fall into anybody hands. We want to discuss with INEC and not political parties so that it will not be what PDP wants or what APC wants."
No comments:
Post a Comment