Parties must invest more in polling agents

I WRITE to appeal to all political parties to invest massively in polling agents ahead of the 2021 general elections so that the issue of rigging, if ever that happens cannot occur.

Political parties should not be economical with spending on their own polling agents who are going to monitor and verify their votes at all polling points throughout the country.

For all I know, if all political parties can station their agents who by then should have been trained on how to monitor the voting which goes with making sure the ballot boxes and booths are empty before voting, then this rigging issue could be for once rested.

However, if you will leave your polling agents at the mercy of other political players because you cannot spend by making sure they have good phones loaded with talk time, food supplements and pocket money for emergency all the time till the counting, then it will be you to blame not your opponents who will take advantage of your agents.

I have noted in most elections where some agents out of frustration leave their polling stations to go and look for food because of poor planning on the part of their political parties who fail to note that just a minute of blinking by your agent can be a cost on your results.

So, my humble appeal is for all the political parties to start identifying their would-be polling agents and start training and equipping them with knowledge and gadgets that are of relevance on the material day of voting.

As we know, these elections seem to be a matter of life and death for others, so it’s better not to leave everything to chance but seal all loopholes so far known to be vulnerable to abuse.

Let us stop the complaining syndrome and address the issues with the vigour they require.