INEC on vote buying

THE Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) recently told candidates who are contesting in the July 14 governorship election in Ekiti State of its plan to foil any attempt by politicians and their hirelings to exchange votes for cash. This submission was made by the INEC chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, in Ado Ekiti while anchoring a stakeholders’ meeting. Yakubu spoke through one of the commission’s officers in charge of Oyo, Ekiti, Osun and Ondo states, Mr. Solomon Soyebi. According to him, INEC was working in tandem with law-enforcement agencies with the aim of preventing vote-buying during the poll. In his words, “The elections in Edo, Ondo and Anambra states were largely monetised. We are aware of this. It was see-and-buy but we promise you, it won’t happen in Ekiti.’’

On his own part, the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Abdullahi Chafe, assured the public that the force had already mapped out strategies to deal with electoral malfeasance by ensuring that a minimum of four policemen are stationed in every polling unit. This assurance from INEC is heartwarming, especially against the backdrop of the electoral frauds that have become the major face of elections in Nigeria. Its acknowledgment of the fact that there was massive vote buying during the Ondo, Anambra and Edo State governorship elections is also a mark of acceptance of the threat of a cancerous growth in the electoral system which needs immediate and urgent surgical operation. This is necessary if the country is to fulfill the major kernel of representative democracy that free and fair elections represent. It is saddening that the threat which had always been posed to representative democracy by fraudulent elections, which began in the First Republic, has yet to abate. Unfortunately, INEC’s simplistic and peremptory approach to the issue of electoral fraud cannot help matters.

One of the objectionable statements made by INEC at the meeting was its promise to ensure that the police bar voters from bringing cars to polling units because such cars are used to convey the cash deployed in buying votes. This method is simplistic and betrays apparent naivety. Those who pay for votes often have agreed locations far from polling units. They are very systematic in their depraved minds and their plans and calculations are hatched before driving to the polling booths. Thus, what INEC officials see at the polling booths is just a culmination of the plans of these depraved political party kingpins.

The solution which INEC has refrained from addressing its mind to is electronic voting. This is a modern system of voting which, if well practised, has a strong answer to the prevalent evil of electoral fraud. With the current system of analogue voting, the country’s electoral system cannot but witness the infiltration of desperate politicians and, consequently, the failure of representative democracy and the paucity of credible leaders. This, in the main, is why Nigeria is bedeviled by the recycling of poorly equipped people in political offices. The result is that the political office-holders steal enough money to pay back their massive investments in vote buying, which in turn adversely affects development. As noted by INEC, it is common knowledge throughout the country that vote buying took place on a massive scale in the 2015 general elections and also in the Edo, Ondo and Anambra state elections.

An indicator that the electoral afflictions are not about to subside was provided by the INEC chairman in another recent statement. According to him, there will be no e-voting in the 2019 elections. He made this known in Abuja at the end of a three-day International Conference of Election Management Bodies (EMBs) in West and Southern African countries in Abuja, with the theme “Opportunities and Challenges in the Use of Technology: Experiences from West and Southern Africa.” He spoke in his capacity as the president, ECOWAS Network of Electoral Commissions (ECONEC).  It is apparent that in spite of its mouthing the positive effects of the adoption of technology in the electoral process, INEC is yet to fully tap into it. Electronic voting is cheaper, faster and more reliable than the analogue voting that Nigeria practices at the moment.

If indeed the electoral body is interested in arresting the malfeasances witnessed during elections, it should fully adopt e-voting. Yes, the electricity conundrum in which Nigeria has found itself could be a major militating factor against the achievement of this effort, but it is apparent that there are technologies which INEC could subscribe to which will reduce the effects of power failure at the polls and ultimately enable Nigeria to achieve the goal of free and fair elections.