A former National Commissioner for Information and Voter Education at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Festus Okoye, has accused Nigeria’s political elite of seeking to undermine voters’ power through vote-buying.
Speaking on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief on Tuesday, Okoye said the political elite appeared unwilling to allow Nigerians to freely choose their leaders, lamenting that they wanted to take away the people’s power to determine election outcomes.
“I think that political elite in this country really do not believe in free, fair, and transparent election. They just want to buy the votes of the people. They want to replace the people as the sovereign, and it is very unfortunate,” Okoye said.
He said a credible election should allow voters to cast their ballots without intimidation, coercion or duress.
Okoye lamented that political parties lacked clear ideologies and were not campaigning on issues, accusing them of seeking ways to ensure that votes did not count on election day.
“The mark of a free, fair and transparent election is the ability of the people to go to the polling units to cast their votes without any form of intimidation, without any form of coercion, and without any form of duress.
“But in this country, what we are now having is a situation where political parties have no ideologies, political parties are not campaigning on any issue, all they know is that on election day they will find a way of making sure that the votes of the people really do not count.”
On the use of technology in elections, Okoye called for continued improvements in the electoral process and the deployment of technology when appropriate.
He also urged the media, civil society organisations and Nigerians to pay close attention to the activities of the political elite before, during and after elections.
“I think that what is important is for the country to keep on improving and also keep on deploying technology as at when due in our electoral process.
“But more importantly, I think the media, civil society groups and organisations, and the Nigerian people generally must focus attention on the activities of the political elite before, during and after election.”
Okoye noted that ad hoc staff, including members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and other Nigerians recruited for elections, play a more prominent role in conducting elections at polling units than INEC’s regular staff.
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