The Team Lead of KDI, Bukola Idowu, has asked politicians to shun vote-buying, lamenting that it would not allow for a level-playing field among contestants of the 2023 general elections.
Idowu said this on Friday in Abuja while reacting to news of a clampdown on alleged vote buyers in Lagos and Rivers with cash, up to N32.4 million and about $500 million respectively.
Speaking on KDI’s Preliminary Statement on its Long-Term Pre-Election Environment Tracking, Concerns and Projections,
Idowu said the initiative deployed 1,126 observers across 50,000 polling units in Nigeria, to observe violent incidents and potential for violence, as well as the conduct of INEC officials, security agencies and other stakeholders, and report back through its election data-room in Abuja.
He called on INEC to rise to the occasion and make sure that 2023 general election would not be compromised physically or digitally; by protecting its database and other assets.
Chairperson of KDI’s Board of Trustees, BOT, Dr Abiola Akiyode, reading the preliminary statement in part, expressed worries that 395 persons had been victims of electoral violence from January 2022, with Southwest accounting for the most-hit region. She stated that without security measures, Nigeria would likely experience low turnout of voters for both Presidential and Governorship elections.
Akiyode who prayed INEC to ensure optimal use of its Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, urged political parties to operate within the provisions of the law and desist from do-or-die winning.
“The BVAS machine deployed for voter accreditation is an encouraging milestone in our democratic journey. However, we appeal to INEC to ensure that these machines work at their optimal best. We played a scenario of the BVAS machine’s speed to ensure that people will not have to stand longer than necessary when they want to cast their votes. We found out that the BVAS machine should not spend more than 1 minute in accrediting each voter, else Polling Units (PUS) that will have more than 350 voters’ turnout may have to complete the process later in the day which could drag into till night. We call on INEC to have plans for malfunction and other challenges that may hinder the process.
“There were also reports in the news yesterday of some INEC Adhoc staff in Imo state opting out of the exercise owing to security concerns as raised by the Resident Electoral Commissioner. We hope INEC has a backup plan and adequate security deployed to arrest any unexpected situation. The success of any election is the aggregate of the achievements of every element of the entire electoral process. It is therefore imperative to scrutinize every component of the election.
She enjoined Nigerians to go out massively and exercise their franchise.
“They should do so without being induced by politicians or political agents and avoid spreading fake news that could disrupt peace and order. Also, we understand some of their pains, especially with the current naira scarcity and we hope that they do not give in to vote buying.
“We want to urge the political parties to operate within the ambits of the law of the land and the 2022 electoral Act. They should desist from do-or-die winning at all costs; actions that could impede the progress of our democracy and acts capable of denting the public good,” she said.
Ms Ene Obi, a member of KDI’s BoT commended INEC, security agencies and other stakeholders for their unflinching efforts towards ensuring credible and peaceful elections, while urging them to dot all i’s and cross all t’s.
She further said according to INEC, 87,209,007 PVCs were collected. This, she said, brings the number of uncollected PVCs to 6,259,229 out of 93,469,008 registered voters.
She recalled that INEC recently announced the creation of an additional 56,872 Polling Units bringing the total number to 176,606 polling units where votes will be conducted on Saturday.
“18 political parties will be contesting for 1 presidential seat, 109 senatorial and 360 House of representative seats. Contesting for the Senate seats across all political parties are 1101 candidates and 3122 contesting for 360 House of Representative seats,” she further stated.
