By Michael Oche
Centre for Transparency Advocacy (CTA) has slammed the conduct of Political Parties and politicians in the just concluded Ondo State Governorship Election
Addressing journalists in Akure, the Ondo state capital on its observation of the election, CTA Executive Director, Faith Nwadishi said the political elite remains the weakest link in Nigeria’s endeavor to introduce electoral reforms.
“The political parties are still inclined to use coercion and vote buying to influence electoral outcomes. In the Ondo election, the parties again lived up to their negative reputation as seen in the impunity in their action on vote buying,” she said.
Nwadishi said it is imperative that political parties acknowledge that incentivizing vote buying is illegal, and that security authorities hold political party officials accountable for the vote-buying actions of their agents.
She also slammed political parties for their failures to deploy party agents to polling units, a critical aspect of ensuring transparency of the electoral process.
She said, “Our observers also reported that in the majority of the polling units, many of the party agents were absent. In most cases, only party agents from two of the political parties were on ground. CTA had in our earlier statement noted the absence of some political parties’ agents during inspection and the deployment of sensitive materials at the CBN.
“We are concerned with this nonchalant attitude of politicians/political parties towards ensuring the credibility of the process. The critical importance of deploying party agents by political parties to monitor the electoral process, especially deployment of materials and election at polling units and eventual collation is important in our collective effort to boost electoral transparency. Political parties must play their part to ensure that we improve our electoral process.”
On the role of INEC and other stakeholders, Nwadishi said based on their observers reports, the BVAS machines deployed by the electoral body operated mostly flawlessly across the state.
She highlighted that voters typically were accredited within one minute,, except a few areas like Unit 026, Ward 5. Ala Close, Sijuade area of Akure South where the BVAS machine was taking about 5 minutes to capture.
She said, “with regards to INEC officials conduct, the CTA is pleased with the performance of the ad-hoc electoral officials throughout the election. Poll workers demonstrated professionalism and a thorough understanding of their responsibilities in the majority of polling units that our observers visited. We urge INEC to continue the practice of making sure that only trained ad hoc staffs are deployed for election duty.”
She however, frowned at the deployable state of the RAC, especially at Akure South, RAC 006.
She said, “From Rac 006, our observers report inadequate vehicles for transporting election materials, forcing ad-hoc staff to resort to use of motorcycles to transport Ad-hoc staff and materials. This in addition to other logistical materials that were not adequately provided for or not provided for including tables, chairs and event tents in voting units situated in open places.”
She urged the INEC leadership to look into what went wrong and ensure such is corrected in future elections
She said further, “according to the report from our observers, security personnel typically arrived early at the voting places. The security personnel behaved professionally, particularly when it came to upholding law and order as well as their relationship with election observers. We commend the DSS for their vigilance and professionalism that lead to the arrest of a vote buyer.
“However, in a number of polling units such as St. James Ward 06, unit 004 in Akure South, police officers was reported to be soliciting for money from party agents. We call on the leadership of Security agencies to continue to train their personnel on their role and importance of their duties on election and how to maintain neutrality.”
Nwadishi applauded voters for their peaceful and orderly conduct throughout the election but frowned at their willingness to sell their votes.