The Independent Electoral Commission, INEC, have proposed a life ban for any politician or political parties caught in the act of vote buying.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Morning Rise, Returning Electoral Commissioner , REC, Akwa Ibom State Mike Igini likened the menace of vote buying to “assume the level of an epidemic and it is the greatest thing that we need to deal with”.
Igini who lamented the implication of vote buying said: “Vote buying has become a problem and it will have huge implications if we don’t stop it now. The first implication of vote buying is that it is going to remove performance politics because the opportunity is that when an incumbent has performed, in the next election for instance you should be rewarded on account of your performance but because of vote buying if not dealt with right away, there will be no performance anymore because all you need do is to keep money somewhere if somebody that is going to challenge you is going to buy vote, secondly vote buying if not stopped, reinforces inequality in the society because it would be the case of only the rich and the wealthy.
“It will also lead to what is called class bias politics. There is what is called the quality of voting of all citizens but when you allow vote buying to thrive, you are going to flood the society within inequality of public franchise.
He added; “Nigeria is not the only country that has experienced vote buying. Some of the notorious countries you see today like the United Kingdom, United State of America, former Soviet Union, Latin American countries, were all involved in that but what happened, in 1856, Australia gave to humanity the idea of secret balloting to deal with the issue of vote buying.
“There was resistance in England that only embraced it in 1872. America that was very notorious only embraced it in 1892. The point is what they do in England, which is my prescription to the National Assembly, when it became a problem in England, in Stanford $5000 was used to purchase 850 votes out of 1000 registered voters.
“In 1872 they came up with a ballot act that is what I am asking the National Assembly to do so that they would continue to be remembered for having this profound electoral act we are having today. Today in England, if you are caught buying votes through your party campaigner or influencer, or campaign manager and it is traceable to you, first you are banned from participating in that election, as well as your political party for six years. Then if you repeat that again, you could be banned for life.
“The entire section 114, to 129 under part 7, of the 2022 Electoral Act, clearly identifies acts, conducts that are considered as an anathema that are totally prohibited . In particular, section 1 subsection 21 of the 2022 electoral act prohibits the act of buying, selling of votes. This is because a vote is a public good, it’s a citizen share of a public franchise. It must not be sold, it must not be bought, in fact, we must stand tall in defence of our democracy and the rule of law.
“We have traveled to many parts of the world. In 2013, when we travelled to Kenya, we were there for the 5th of March election, on that day , we were monitoring, a campaign manager of a senatorial candidate was caught with different envelopes containing money, that he was using to induce buy voters. He was arrested that same day , he was charged to court, the second day he was convicted to three years imprisonment . So why is it that people who have been arrested over time do nothing about them. The only way you can make that impact is to quickly arraign them. In the United State of America, over 400 cases were arraigned before the 2020 election, they were all determined before the take off of that election. ” he said.
