Vote Buying Undermined Legitimacy of Ekiti Election, Say International Observers

The National Democratic Institute (NDI) and the International Republican Institute (IRI), yesterday condemned vote buying during the recent governorship election in Ekiti State.

The groups said the monetisation of the election undermined its legitimacy and weakens representative democracy.

The international election observer groups noted that the practice had persisted because of the lack of enforcement of punishments for this electoral offense.

IRI Regional Director for Europe, Jan Surotchak, who made these observations at a joint press briefing in Abuja where he presented the verdict of the groups on the Ekiti governorship election, expressed concern about the high level of vote buying.

According to Surotchak, "Vote buying is an electoral offense; it also undermines the legitimacy of elections and weakens representative democracy. During the July 14 gubernatorial elections in Ekiti State, the Watching The Vote (WTV)

group deployed citizen election observers to a representative sample of polling sites across the state and recorded that 8 percent of sampled polling units experienced incidents of vote buying or bribery on the election day."

He stated that residents said poverty, disillusionment with the performance of elected representatives and low civic awareness of voters contributed to the expansion of vote buying, particularly in off-cycle gubernatorial elections since 2015.

Surotchak revealed that some Nigerians who commented on the development expressed worries that rising insecurity and the threat to violence could dampen citizen participation in the 2019 elections and prevent some voters from going to the polls.

He said: "The lack of enforcement of punishments for this electoral offense has allowed the practice to persist and grow. Delegation members also noted instances where the placement of the voting and the folding of the ballot did not guarantee the secrecy of the ballot.

"The delegation noted significant disparities in the capacity of polling unit officials to administer the counting of results. However, the consolidation of the accreditation and voting processes was a successful innovation that shortened the amount of time spent by voters at the polling unit.”

Also, the Vice Chairperson, Electoral Commission, South Africa, Terry Tselane urged President Muhammadu Buhari to sign into law the electoral act amendment bill before August 16, in accordance with the ECOWAS protocol to which Nigeria is a signatory. This, according to him, is to ensure sufficient time for INEC to implement electoral changes.

He said: "INEC believes that the bill to amend the electoral act recently passed by the National Assembly would strengthen its ability to ensure greater transparency and accountability in the political party candidate nomination process for all elected offices.

"Changed to the electoral act would also require INEC to make the voter register and election results electronic and accessible; increase the campaign period from 90 to 150 days".