From Okwe Obi, Abuja
The Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) has condemned vote buying and the abuse of incumbency that trailed the Bayelsa, Kogi and Imo States governorship polls.
The Centre, also, frown at the late arrival of electoral materials in some areas, malfunction of the Biometric Verification Automated System (BVAS) and disinformation.
Chair, CDD Election Analysis Centre, Professor Adele Jinadu, at a press conference yesterday in Abuja, said: “The abuse of the power of incumbency for unfair partisan party-political electoral advantage by the governing parties in the three states is a major factor posing challenge to the conduct of election in the country.
“The abuse of incumbency takes any or all of the following forms – unequal access of opposition parties to state electronic media, the deployment of state resources, such as official state vehicles and staff for electioneering campaigns and the mobilisation of voting banks by parties in power in the three states, and the denial of the display of bill boards, the denial of access to campaign facilities and public spaces by opposition parties to convey their messages to the electoral by signage authorities.
“These remain major fetters on the conduct of the three off-cycle elections that satisfied the conditions for electoral integrity.”
He added: “Inducement of voters, especially in the form of vote-buying and vote-selling, featured during the 11 November, 2023 off-cycle elections.
“Our observers reported incidents of inducement of voters in (a) Bayelsa State, where in some polling units in the Southern Ijaw LGA, wrappers and rice were allegedly distributed to voters in addition to monetary inducements.
“(b) Imo State, where party agents allegedly offered voters cash incentives and, more worryingly, where INEC ad-hoc staff allegedly received money from party agents in PU 7, Ehime-Mbano LGA; and (c) Kogi State, where the LGA Chairman of Igalamela-Odudu was arrested with wads of cash and bullets on his person.
“Reported cases of the spread of disinformation during off-cycle elections in the three states included the false news that the governorship candidate of the PDP in Imo State, Sam Anyanwu had voluntarily withdrawn from the elections, and that the SDP governorship candidate in Kogi State, Murtala Ajaka, had been disqualified from contesting the elections.
“The elections in the three states were conducted against a history of political conflict occasioned by cultism, insurgencies and separatist agitations. Against this background, the prospects of insecurity were a major source of concern before and during the elections.
“The elections witnessed the following incidents of violence: (a) an alleged ballot snatcher being shot and killed in Dekina LGA in Kogi State;(b) another person was shot dead in Famgbe Community in Yenegoa LGA, Bayelsa; and (c) a violent altercation in a collation centre in Kogi State, where a group of other party agents pounced upon and violently attacked another party agent who was complaining about the conduct of elections in the state.”