A year after the 2023 general elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and about 16 political parties are yet to make public their election expenses as mandated by the Electoral Act 2022.
A year after the 2023 general elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission and about 16 political parties are yet to make public their election expenses as mandated by the Electoral Act 2022.• Only LP, AAC complied with mandatory report of assets and liabilitiesA year after the 2023 general elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission and about 16 political parties are yet to make public their election expenses as mandated by the Electoral Act 2022.
Similarly, Section 15, under Part I of the Third Schedule of the 1999 Constitution mandates the commission to “monitor the organisation and operation of the political parties, including their finances,” and “arrange for the annual examination and auditing of the funds and accounts of political parties, and publish a report on such examination and audit for public information.”
Other defaulting parties are Accord , Action Alliance , Action Democratic Party , Boot Party , National Rescue Movement , Young Progressive Party , Zenith Labour Party , People’s Redemption Party . The chairman of the Fundraising Team of the Campaign organisation, Aisha Yesufu, disclosed that “From the donations from citizens, we received N595,976,994. We also received N800 million from the candidate.
When contacted on the phone, the national publicity secretary of APC Felix Morka, pleaded for time to make enquiries from the finance department of the party to ascertain if the financial reports of the 2023 campaigns have been made public or not and promised to call back. Investigation revealed that there are three financial reports that parties are expected by law to submit to INEC. They are the election contributions report, election expenses report and annual report.
According to Section 88 of the Electoral Act, “the maximum election expenses to be incurred by a candidate at a presidential election shall not exceed N5 billion”. In contrast, that of the governorship candidate is pegged at N1 billion, so also for Senatorial, but N70 million for candidates for House of Representatives.