Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu, recently lamented the increasing rate of vote trading in Nigeria.

Yakubu raised the concerns in a goodwill message at an annual summit of political parties and stakeholders organised by the National Institute of Strategic Studies (NIPPS) in Abuja.

Vote trading challenge

For instance, the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room, Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), and Yiaga Africa all said they observed open negotiations to buy and sell votes in the 2022 Osun State governorship election.

In different reports, the civil society organisations (CSOs) said the buying and selling of votes was well coordinated by polling agents in many polling units.

Also, data from Statista shows that as of 2019, 24 percent of male and 19 percent of female respondents declared that they were offered money or non‐monetary favours in exchange for their vote in state and national elections.

The data also revealed that in Nigeria, people living in rural areas are more likely to experience vote-buying in organised elections.

Vote trading has become a widespread practice in Nigeria and it has prevailed in every election, and increased with each new poll.

Previously, election observers have reported incidents where bags of rice, N500 or more were freely given out to induce voters.

Addressing this menace

It is not enough for the INEC chairman to decry the increase in the rate of vote buying in the country; the commission should come up with concrete ways to drastically reduce its occurrence.

Even though INEC has an ongoing partnership with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Offences Commission (ICPC) to curb corrupt practices during elections, vote trading is still rampant during elections.

INEC is empowered by section 127 of the Electoral Act, 2022 to punish persons involved in vote trading.

The commission should persist in aggressive enforcement of the country’s anti-graft laws towards prosecuting politicians caught in possession of large sums of cash to facilitate vote trading.

INEC can also ensure proper monitoring of polling units during the voting process by installing surveillance cameras to capture all shenanigans taking place during elections.

Photo credit: USAID in Africa