The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it has received 129 applications from associations seeking registration as political parties, amid moves to introduce a digital platform to streamline the process.
By Chimezie Godfrey
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it has received 129 applications from associations seeking registration as political parties, amid moves to introduce a digital platform to streamline the process.
The Commission disclosed this on Thursday following its weekly meeting, where it reviewed new requests and assessed the status of the online registration system.
According to the National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee, Sam Olumekun, seven additional applications were received in the past week alone.
“This brings the total number of applications so far to 129. All the requests are currently being processed,”Olumekun said in a statement.
In a significant shift from the manual process used in previous party registrations, INEC announced the deployment of a digital registration portal, a module within its Party Financial Reporting and Auditing System (PFRAS).
The Commission said the platform will make registration more transparent, seamless, and accessible.
“The Commission is introducing a political party registration portal as a module in our PFRAS,” Olumekun explained. “In the next one week, we will conclude final testing of the portal before full deployment.”
He stressed that once testing is completed, INEC will announce the next steps for associations that meet the basic requirements to proceed to the formal application stage.
“Guidelines will also be issued to facilitate the filing of applications through the PFRAS portal,” he added.
The growing number of requests comes at a time of heightened political awareness and renewed interest in party formation ahead of the next general election cycle.
INEC also revealed that the list of all associations seeking registration has been uploaded on its website and other official platforms for public scrutiny and transparency.
The move to digitise the registration process is seen as part of broader electoral reforms aimed at increasing efficiency, enhancing accountability, and reducing bureaucratic bottlenecks in the political party registration framework.
Observers say the Commission’s shift to a tech-driven system may help weed out unserious applications and ensure only associations with clear structures and national spread meet the threshold for registration.