INEC (Independent National Electoral Commission has come up with a new method for handling of ballot papers. It is set to make sure vote buying becomes impossible during the 2019 general elections.
The Chairman of the commission, Prof. Mahmud Yakubu, discussed it in his speech at a program tagged “Vote Buying and Improving Electoral Processes in Nigeria”. The program which was organized by the National Assembly Joint Committee on INEC was held in Abuja on Monday.
Mahmud explained that at polling units, ballot papers will be rolled up. This includes while officials hand them out to the voters, and also as they proceed to cast their votes. He then emphasized that voters will also have to roll up and flatten their ballot papers as they move to drop them in the ballot boxes provided.
The INEC chairman also showed the attendees an example of how to fold the ballot papers. He did this with a prototype of the presidential ballot paper. He maintained that the new process would mean those vote buyers and their agents will not be able to see voters’ thumb-printed ballot papers.
Mahmud described vote buying as an occurrence that at all levels of the electoral process, and even primary elections at the political party level are not left out. He equally lamented that despite the fact that it is a criminal offense in the constitution, culprits are not usually arrested nor prosecuted.
He said, “since 1999, we have had several confessional statements by many partisan actors on how an electoral process is subverted and voters and electoral personnel are induced. They do this through food items, kitchen utensils, automobiles, electrical appliances, clothing toiletries, sandwich and so on. By sandwich, I am not talking about food. There is a way candidate induce voters using two slices of bread; sandwiched in between the two slices is a currency note”.
Mahmud insisted that the most effective way to end vote buying is to end to the inducement of voters.
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