Fifty-seven political parties
failed to submit details of their expenses in the 2019 general election.
Although 91 political parties
participated in this year’s elections, only 34 had submitted reports of their
expenses to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as of
Thursday.
The electoral act, the law
guiding Nigeria’s elections, mandates political parties to submit to INEC
audited returns of their expenses during the elections as well material
contributions received from individuals and corporate bodies.
Section 92 (3) of the act states:
“Election expenses of a political party shall be submitted to the Commission in
a separate audited return within 6 months after an election and such return
shall be signed by the political party’s auditors and counter-signed by the
Chairman of the party and be supported by a sworn affidavit by the signatories
as to the correctness of its contents.”
But four months after the
deadline, most of the political parties have not complied.
An INEC document sighted by
TheCable stipulated that while 34 parties submitted details of their expenses
as well as material contributions, 57 others did not do so.
Although the parties were not
listed, most of the erring parties are among the 73 that participated in the
presidential election, according to an INEC source.
TheCable reports that the
commission is conducting an independent review of the election expenses.
While the electoral act specifies
returns to be made to include amount of money spent as well as what they were
used for, it stipulates that failure to comply is punishable by a maximum of N1
million fine.
Section 92 (4) of the electoral
act states: “A political party which contravenes subsection (3) of this section
commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a maximum fine of Nl,000,000
and in the case of failure to submit an accurate audited return within the
stipulated period, the court may impose a maximum penalty of N200,000 per day
on any party for the period after the return was due until it is submitted to
the Commission.
“(5) The return referred to in
subsection (3) of this section shall show the amount of money expended by or on
behalf of the party on election expenses, the items of expenditure and
commercial value of goods and services received for election purposes.”
Rotimi Oyekanmi, spokesman of INEC chairman, did not
immediately respond to inquiries on the issue of parties yet to submit their
audited returns.
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