From Priscilla Ediare, Ado Ekiti
With just a few days to the June 18 governorship election in Ekiti State, Yiaga Africa, an observer group, has expressed regret that despite the various campaigns against inducing voters in the coming election, politicians have continued to engage in vote trading at the expense of issue-based campaigns, noting that it ridicules the democratic process.
Condemning the act, YIAGA explained that politicians have adopted the strategy of door-to-door engagements with voters which may be the major determinant of the June poll.
The Director of Programme, Yiaga Africa’s Watching The Vote (WTV) Cynthia Mbamalu, who briefed newsmen at a pre-election observation press conference on Wednesday, in Ado-Ekiti, noted that if the trend continued, the highest bidder may likely decide the poll, hinting that it has deployed 25 long-term observers to all the 16 local government areas of the state to gather systematic information about the pre-election environment.
“Yiaga Africa is immensely concerned that the spate of voter inducement which has taken a dimension of the door to door engagement, may become the major determinant in the elections,” she said.
“We are worried that, despite persistent campaigns against voter inducement, politicians have continued to prioritise vote trading over issue-based campaigns.
“Just like in the 2018 Ekiti governorship election, where mandates were presumed to be purchased rather than duly elected, this year’s election is shaping up to be a bigger money fiesta. The Ekiti election may be an election decided by the highest bidder.”
Yiaga which lauded the mock accreditation exercise conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC ) in Ekiti to test the functionality of the Bimodal Voter Authentication System (BVAS) and the capacity of its staff, however, described the exercise as lacking adequate publicity and information.
The group advised INEC to ensure timely and adequate training of all ad-hoc staff in preparation for the election and called on all registered voters in the state who are yet to collect their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) to do so immediately, saying the collection of the cards are still ongoing in all INEC local government offices and also urged them to vote on the election day.