The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has removed seventy-four (74) political parties from the number of genuinely registered political parties in Nigeria.

This disclosure was made on Thursday at a press briefing in Abuja by the INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmud Yakubu.

According to him, the deregistration of the 74 political parties was as a result of their inability to satisfy the requirements of the ”Fourth Alteration to the Constitution”, thereby breaching the requirements for registration as a political party.

What constitutes a breach to the requirements for registration, he said is the failure of the political parties to win at least 25% of the votes cast in one State of the Federation in a Presidential election or 25% of the votes cast in one Local Government Area of a State in a Governorship election, constituted.

He explained that the failure of the affected political parties to also win at least one ward in a Chairmanship election; one seat in the National or State Assembly election or one seat in a Councillorship election, contributed to the decision of INEC to deregister them.

He stated that consequent upon this, Nigeria now has only 18 Registered political parties. The 18 registered political parties are Accord Party (AP), Action Alliance (AA), African Action Congress (AAC), African Democratic Congress (ADC), African Democratic Party (ADP), All Progressives Congress (APC), All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Allied Peoples Movement (APM), Labour Party (LP), New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), National Rescue Movement (NRM), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Social Democratic Party (SDP), Young Progressive Party (YPP), Zenith Labour Party (ZLP), Boot Party (BP) and Action Peoples Party (APP).

With this development, only 18 political parties will be allowed to feature candidates for elections in Nigeria, pending the registration of new parties.