Following a decision by the electoral umpire in Nigeria, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to hold constituency bye-elections in Nassarawa state, elections-focused civil society group, YIAGA AFRICA, has reported violations of health guidelines and massive vote-buying at the recently concluded polls.
INEC had earlier announced the Nasarawa central state constituency bye-elections as its first official elections following the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in March this year. In his statement, the Commission’s chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, expressed high hopes going into the elections, reiterating its importance as a blueprint for how the upcoming Edo and Ondo state elections, as well as other forthcoming polls, will be conducted and adjusted to fit the current times.
Conducted in 44 polling units in the constituency in a bid to fill a slot left open by the death of Senator Suleiman Adamu who passed away in May following complications from the Covid-19, YIAGA Africa, which served as one of the polls observers made the allegation that the election was marred with vote-buying.
This was contained in a statement signed by the Executive Director, YIAGA AFRICA, Samson Itodo, which scored the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, political parties, and voters’ performance on the just concluded Nasarawa Central State Constituency Bye-Election based on its observation report and recommendation.
“While INEC took some measures to follow COVID-19 health guidelines including providing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) like face masks, hand gloves, thermometer for temperature checks and hand sanitizers at all observed polling units and sanitizing all voters’ fingers before reading their fingerprints with the Smart Card Reader, INEC experienced challenges maintaining a physical distance between voters and ensuring that all voters wore face masks/coverings while at the polls,” he said.
“In addition to massive vote-buying, political parties provided facemasks and handwashing equipment at the polling units to lure voters to cast their votes.”
While the group commended voters for turning out despite “logistical hiccups,” it also called on election stakeholders to take measures on lessons learned from these elections to guarantee the enforcement of health safety in subsequent elections amidst Covid-19.
The Edo and Ondo governorship elections are scheduled for September 19 and October 10, respectively.
This story is part of our new series on Nigeria where we analyse electoral reform in the country ahead of the next general elections in 2023.
