The National Chairman of the Inter-Party Advisory Council, (IPAC), Yusuf Dantalle, has said that mandatory e-registration undermines democracy, restricting party membership and defections, and should be rejected ahead of primaries.
He said this in an interview with ARISE NEWS following 2026 Electoral Act which requires all registered political parties to maintain and submit a digital membership register to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) by a set deadline before congresses, primaries or conventions.
This register must include member details such as names, polling units and their National Identification Numbers (NIN). Only individuals listed in that digital register can be eligible to vote or be voted for in party primaries.
“IPAC as a body is yet to meet and take a collective position on the issue, but individually and from the conversation and feelers around among the parties, it is an aberration to the principles of democracy.
“Because democracy is about freedom to participate, freedom to aspire, and freedom to choose your leaders. So for any reason, at whatever stage in the democratic process, the rules are meant to favor a few and disenfranchise others, I think it is an aberration and we won’t allow it because if the process of joining political parties is made to be so stringent, the process of leaving the political party should also be made to be stringent. People join political parties at will, but they defect… Now with this law, with the way the electoral act is captioned, it will be difficult to move freely among the parties”, he explained.
He noted that while some party discipline is desirable, the timeline is too short for parties to collect members’ National Identification Numbers across all 36 states ahead of primaries, making the mandatory e-registration an aberration that should be rejected.
“It is a welcome development that, yes, let there be some form of discipline in the parties, but at this stage, at this level, the time is too short for political parties to begin to go around the 36 states of Nigeria and then ask parties to ensure that inclusion of National Identification Number becomes a mandatory criteria for membership of political party, considering the period of primary election. So I think it is an aberration and it must be rejected. It is not a welcome development”, he said.
Dantalle reiterated that the issue with mandatory e-registration lies in its timing, leaving most parties unprepared to meet the April 2 deadline.
“Yes, it is good, we are not saying it’s bad, but the timing is where the problem is. No party as it stands, except those who have maybe the foreknowledge of what is happening now, who must have prepared themselves ahead, but there’s no party. Outside that, all the political parties have their membership registered and submitted to INEC before now. Before every election we do that, both electronic and hard copy. But the timing is the problem for us as it is now”, he stressed.
The IPAC National Chairman also noted that the focus should be on protecting democratic participation rather than the challenges posed by the tight e-registration timeline.
“Those who made these laws are Nigerians and they are aware of the reality of our system. So it is not about consequence, democracy is a choice. We Nigerians chose democracy as a mode of electing those who represent us. So if whatever we do that will exclude any segment of the society from voting and or being voted for raises a lot of question to the democratic practice in Nigeria. So it is an appeal to members of National Assembly to review that compulsion at this period”, he concluded.
Favour Odima
