Dare Babalola
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has introduced a digital means of registration for political parties.
The development was made public by the INEC’s National Commissioner and Chairman, Information & Voter Education Committee, Sam Olumekun, in a statement he signed on Thursday.
According to the committee chairman, the final testing stage of the portal will be concluded next week and qualified parties will be allowed to register.
Olumekun disclosed that seven more applications to register political parties were received last week, bringing the total number of applicants to 129.
He said, “Unlike the manual method used in previous registration, the Commission is introducing a political party registration portal which is a module in our Party Financial Reporting and Auditing System (PFRAS). This will make the process faster and seamless. In the next one week, the Commission will conclude the final testing of the portal before deployment. Thereafter, the next step for associations that meet the requirements to proceed to the application stage will be announced. The Commission will also issue guidelines to facilitate the filing of applications using the PFRAS.
“Meanwhile, the list of the new associations has been uploaded to our website and other platforms for public information.”
