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INEC, parties meet over funding, others
From Mohammed Abubakar,
Abuja
PARTY finances, the new electoral bill and voters' registration exercise topped the agenda yesterday at a consultative meeting between the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and leaders of the political parties.
However, the Chairman of the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP), Alhaji Abdulkadir Balarabe Musa, and the Deputy National Chairman of the All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP), Gen. Jeremiah Useni (rtd), differed on the funding of the parties.
Useni had, while considering the problem of inadequate funding of political parties, suggested a meeting of the parties with INEC and the President sometime after Christmas.
But his argument was punctured by Musa, who argued that going to the President to seek fund for INEC was compromising the independence of the commission.
Yesterday's forum, which was called to address the issues of party finances, the new electoral bill and voters' registration exercise, witnessed a minor drama as the faction of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) led by Senator Mojisoluwa Akinfenwa was denied entry into the commission's premises.
The INEC recognised faction of Chief Bisi Akande took active part in the deliberations, which lasted about three and a half-hours at the commission's conference hall.
In his remark, the commission's Chairman, Dr. Abel Guobadia, lamented the inadequate funding of the commission, which he said has hampered its operations in the past.
He said in 2004, the commission got only N7 million as its overhead costs, to run both its national headquarters, the 36 states offices plus the Federal Capital and 774 local councils in the country.
He expressed hope that the situation would improve in 2005, to enable the commission start making adequate preparation for the subsequent elections, particularly, in 2007, warning that subjecting the commission to inadequate funding was capable of marring its duties.
On the electronic voter's card, the commission boss, said the process of registration would be intensified in the coming year, saying that by 2006, the process should have been completed to allow time for necessary claims and objection.
Guobadia made it clear, however, that the commission does not have the constitutional powers to seek funds for political parties and challenged them to devise means of getting the National Assembly to appropriate funds for them.
One of such means, he said, was for the parties that are represented in the National Assembly to put pressure on their members to appropriate funds to them.
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