2023 Polls: INEC vows to eliminate vote buying
…Implores voters to cross-check Polling Units before election
Joel Oladele-Abuja
Few hours to the 2023 general election, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has reiterated its commitments to tackling vote buying.
The Chairman of the Commision, Professor Mahmood Yakubu disclosed this in Abuja on Thursday during the media briefing towards the preparation for the election.
According to him, vote buying is not only illegal but an immoral practice that should be discouraged in order to sustain democracy. He added that the Commision is working hand in glove with appropriate enforcement agencies to ensure the perpetrators are brought to book.
“Vote buying remains a major threat to our democracy. We have worked closely with enforcement agencies to ensure that this is eliminated from our electoral process. We are convinced that our joint operations before and on election day will vastly reduce the prospect of voter inducement, which is not only illegal but immoral.
“The ban on the use of mobile phones and photographic devices at the voting cubicles, is still in place. Some voters have used these devices in previous elections to snap their marked ballot papers for vote transaction.
“However, citizens are permitted to come to the Polling Units with these devices, as long as they do not take them to the voting cubicles. Our arrangement of placing the ballot box near the voting cubicle and away from party agents remains. Our staff have been trained in the administration of the Polling Units and their attention should be drawn to any deviation from that training.”
Speaking further, the INEC boss said all is set for the conduct of the election as sensitive materials have been deployed to the States and are presently being delivered to various Local Government Area offices across the country.
“This election is a huge logistical deployment. We have painstakingly procured, organised and delivered all the materials to the States for deployment. We commenced the delivery of non-sensitive materials over two months ago and they have been batched down to Registration Area/Ward and Pulling Unit levels.
“Sensitive materials have been delivered to the States and are presently being delivered to our Local Government Area offices. As such, these materials are only between one and two levels away from the Polling Units.
“We have achieved this by learning from our recent difficult experience with logistics. We have completed arrangements with the transport unions for the final leg of the movement of personnel and materials to the Polling Units. They have assured us of their readiness to provide all the vehicular needs of the Commission for the election.”
He added that as part of efforts by the Commision to decongest some polling units, 7 per cent of voters have been moved to less populated Polling Units and urged every voter to cross-check their new Polling Units before election.
“A major part of our preparation for the General Election was the establishment of additional 56,872 Polling Units across the country, the first time of doing so since 1996. With this, we expanded voter access to polling units in Nigeria by over 32 per cent, making it possible for voters to have improved opportunities for casting their votes.
“Unfortunately, voters have not taken full advantage of this opportunity, resulting in 240 Polling Units without voters, and prompting the Commission to further move some voters out of congested Polling Units to less populated ones.
“I implore all voters to cross-check their Polling Units before the election. However, only 7 per cent of voters are affected by this movement. This means that the vast majority of voters will still vote in their usual Polling Units.
“We sent bulk phone text messages (SMS) to the affected voters, tasked our State offices for publicity in local languages and offered two unique ways by which voters can locate and confirm their polling units before Election Day by sending a normal text message to dedicated telephone numbers or by visiting our website. The detailed procedure is uploaded to our social media platforms.”
To mitigate the effects of naira scarcity on the election, Professor Yakubu said the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has promised to make a small amount of cash available for some critical service providers for the election.
“As a result of recent developments in the economy, we have also had to consult with the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) on the fuel situation.
“As you all know, we require Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) and Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) to power vehicles and boats for land and marine transportation as well as our generators during the election. We are pleased that the NNPC Limited assured us that it will ensure availability of the products for the polls.
“Likewise, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has assured us that it will provide us with the small amount of cash we require from our budget to cash payment to some critical service providers for the election. I must reiterate that the bulk of payment for works goods and services are still paid for by electronic transfer,” Yakubu said
He concluded by assuring Nigerians of free, fair and credible elections, “I want to assure Nigerians that we are adequately prepared for this election. We remain fully committed to a free, fair and credible process. I want to once again declare that our allegiance is only to Nigerians. Our commitment is to ensure that in this election we put everything in place for free choice, fair contest and credible outcome.”
