Clement Adeyi, Osogbo

An election observer in the September 22 Osun State governorship election, which was declared inconclusive by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said that the Commission’s threat to arrest and prosecute vote-buyers  helped minimised the menace during the exercise.

Coordinator of  Nigeria Civil Society (NCS), an election observer, Clement Nwanko, who stated this yesterday at a post election briefing disclosed that incidences of vote-buying and selling during the election  were minimal.

“As with the recent governorship election in Osun state,  incidences of vote buying reoccurred, but at a reduced and less brazen manner.

“Incidences of vote-buying now seem subtler, with INEC’s announcement and law enforcement officials that suspects would be arrested and charged to court, and the actual deployment of security personnel to enforce this,  helped significantly,” he added.

Nwanko, however, commended Osun residents and political parties for conducting themselves peacefully during the  election.

Meanwhile, Election monitoring group, YIAGA Africa, has confirmed that the votes cast during the Saturday governorship election as officially announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) was consistent with its observation.

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Co-Chair of YIAGA Africa’s Watching The Vote, Osun Election Observation Mission, Dr. Aisha Abdullahi, said this,  in Osogbo, the state capital, on Monday.

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Abdullahi said the group’s Watching The Vote (WTV) project was an initiative to monitor the credibility of elections across the country, using its Parellel Vote Tabulation (PVT) Method.

She said that the PVT produced an estimated range based on the untainted polling unit results collected from a representative statistical sample of polling units. She also disclosed that the range was calculated, using long established statistical formula.

She said that in all the 30 collation centres, no party agents disagreed with the results declared.