A prominent election monitoring group, the Centre for Transparency Advocacy, has raised an alarm over the growing incidents of vote buying in the country. The domestic observer group, accredited by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), monitored recent off-season governorship elections in Kogi, Bayelsa, and Imo states.
They declared that the predominant political parties in the country incentivised vote buying while the security agents showed indifference to it.
The report reads in part: “In our elections, vote buying has solidified into a crime that involves the majority of political parties and their operatives. According to our observers, vote buying and selling were rampant, with the main parties using inventive vote-buying plans and strategies to elude law enforcement.
The three states of Bayelsa, Imo, and Kogi were all part of this unpleasant trend. INEC, security agencies, Nigerians, and other interested parties must devise strategies to deal with this unpleasant occurrence.
It is imperative that political parties acknowledge that incentivizing vote buying is illegal and that security authorities hold party officials accountable for the vote-buying actions of their agents.”
The CTA also noted that letters of the Peace Accords, at the instance of the National Peace Committee, were observed in breach. “Regrettably, the political elite remains the most vulnerable component in our endeavour to introduce electoral changes.
There are still inclinations to use violence and coercion to influence the process. We suggest making the Peace Accord, typically signed by parties or candidates as a formality, subject to legal proceedings. The peace treaty must be used to compel contestants and parties to swear to an affidavit.”
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