Section 83
Monitoring of political parties(1) The Commission shall keep records of the activities of all the registered political parties.
(2) The Commission may seek information or clarification from any registered political party in connection with any activities of the political party which may be contrary to the provisions of the Constitution or any other law, guidelines, rules or regulations made pursuant to an Act of the National Assembly.
(3) The Commission may direct its enquiry under subsection (2) to the Chairman or Secretary of the political party at the national, state, local government or area council or ward level, as the case may be.
Cap. C23 LFN, 2004.(4) A political party which fails to provide the required information or clarification under subsection (2) or carry out any lawful directive given by the Commission in conformity with the provisions of this section is liable to a fine not more than N1,000,000.
This provision empowers the Commission to keep records of all the activities of registered political parties. It also empowers it to seek for any clarification from any political party and penalizes any political party that fails to provide the required information or clarification as requested.
Penalty for parties that fail to provide required information to INEC or who fail to implement any lawful directive given by the Commission is increased to a fine of not less than N1,000,000.00. (Previous 2010 Act stipulated a N500,000 fine)
AKINYELE & ANOR v. ADEWALE & ORS (2015) LPELR-25718 (CA)
As rightly stated by both Counsel for the respondents, the purpose of the provision in Section 85(1) of the Electoral Act is to enable INEC attend and monitor the primaries of the political parties in order to perform its function to "keep records of the political parties of all the registered political parties "under Section 86(1) thereof".
AMAECHI V. INEC (2008) 5 NWLR (PT. 1080) 227 at 296
The Court held that it is mandatory for political parties to inform INEC of the date and time of holding a convention or congress summoned for the purpose of nominating candidates for any elective offices under the Electoral Act. The obligation on the parties to inform INEC of such congress is to ensure that INEC would know and keep a record of candidates who won at the primaries.
See also: SAMUEL & ANOR. V. LANRE & ORS. (2015) LPELR - 25982 (CA).
