Cannabis political parties

Single-issue cannabis political parties exist to oppose the laws against cannabis.

Australia

In 2013, the Drug Law Reform Party successfully registered with the Australian Electoral Commission, with over 500 members as required. Although the party represents the liberalisation of drug laws in general, cannabis remains a primary focus (http://www.druglawreform.com.au/).

In the 1970s, J.J. McRoach ran for parliament as candidate for the Australian Marijuana Party. He had an advertising campaign funded by an anonymous dealer. His party came fourth in the elections. In 1986 Nick Brash ran for the “Marijuana Party” for the Kiama NSW by-election against ALP heavy-weight Bob “Bobo” Harrison. Then in 1987 Nick Brash ran in the Heathcote NSW by-election with 13 other candidates including the infamous Rex “Buckets” Jackson. This campaign was partly funded by the late John Marsden, solicitor and outspoken civil libertarian. In the 1988 NSW State Election he joined Macciza Macpherson in running for the Legislative Council Soon after, the electoral laws were changed requiring all political parties to prove a membership of 500 enrolled voters, an impossible task for the Marijuana Party. The independent HEMP Legalise Marijuana party continues to run in the upper house in South Australian state elections, with their best result being in 1997 when they received 1.7% of the vote, beating relatively popular parties such as the SA Greens and the SA branch of the National Party of Australia. The Party was founded in 1993 and has a constitution, which describes an organisation with the aim of endorsing candidates to contest elections to the Federal Parliament of Australia.

John

John is a common English name and surname:

John may also refer to:

People with the given name

Religious figures

Ephraim Akpata

Justice Ephraim Omorose Ibukun Akpata was the first chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of Nigeria, responsible for the 1998/1999 elections that re-introduced democracy in May 1999.

Background

Ephraim Akpata was born in 1927 in Edo State. He attended King's College, Lagos and went on to study law. In his book 888 Days in Biafra, Samuel Enadeghe Umweni recollects how Lawyer Akpata twice made the dangerous journey across the front lines to visit him while he was held prisoner by the breakaway Biafran troops during the Nigerian Civil War (1967–1970). Akpata became a justice of the Supreme court, retiring in 1993 at the age of 65. He was appointed to head the INEC in 1998 when General Abdulsalam Abubakar's Administration established the INEC to organise the transitional elections that ushered in the Nigerian Fourth Republic on 29 May 1999.

Formation of parties

To avoid splits along ethnic lines, Akpata stipulated that only parties with broad-based national support would be allowed to contest the elections. He ruled that political parties must win local government electoral seats in at least ten states to qualify for the gubernatorial, state assembly, national assembly and presidential elections. Of 26 political associations, he gave provisional registration as political parties for the 1998/1999 elections to only nine, with only three parties finally qualifying to compete in the State and National elections. This caused the formation of coalitions of smaller associations, such as the Group of 34 which formed the new People's Democratic Party (PDP).