Voters Inducement, Thuggery May Characterise Osun Guber Elections -Yiaga Africa’s WTV
Apparently worried by its pre-election findings on the forthcoming governorship election in Osun State, Yiaga Africa’s WTV has called on citizens to shun all forms of voter inducement and thuggery as they undermine the democratic process.
Addressing newsmen in Osogbo on Wednesday, the Director of Programmes, Yiaga Africa’s, Cynthia Mbamalu observed that thuggery and voters Inducement have continued to characterise the activities of political parties even before the election day.
Yiaga Africa has therefore warned that if this practice of vote merchandising is not curbed, it will consistently delegitimize political mandate and undermine the electoral process.
The NGO charged security agencies working on the elections to ensure that all personnel for deployment for the July 16 gubernatorial election in the state are adequately trained and made to operate with all sense of responsibility, professionalism and neutrality.
According to Cynthia Mbamalu, it was observed that the major political parties have intensified their campaigns deploying both legal and illegal antics in an attempt to win the race to the government house
She noted that barely 10 days to the election, the political and security atmosphere has remained tensely unpredictable with the security agency describing every Local Government Area as a potential flashpoint.
“Yiaga Africa’s pre-election reports have revealed the activities of cultists and political thugs in some local government areas (LGA) as capable of threatening the peaceful and credible conduct of the election, if not contained. In addition to this threat, there are also attempts by some political mercenaries to manipulate the process right from the pre-election stage.
While appealing to political parties to play the game according to the rules, the NGO observed that vandalization, destruction and defacing of political party candidates incident mostly during the night has characterised pre-election in the state
Yiaga Africa however commended INEC for the implementation of the preparatory activities but admonished the electoral umpire to provide better oversight over the activities ongoing at the LGA levels.
“We also call on INEC to come up with a seamless and stress-free PVC collection strategy across the LGAs to boost citizens’ confidence and encourage participation.
INEC should intensify the education of citizens and stakeholders on the consequences of vote-trading, especially on Election Day.
“To increase electoral transparency and accountability, INEC should make the PVC collection data public in the state and make the information available on its website.