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 were well coordinated by polling agents in many polling units.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared the candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ademola Adeleke, the winner of the keenly contested election, which was closely monitored by Development Diaries.
Adeleke got a total of 403,371 votes to beat the incumbent, Adegboyega Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who got 375,027 votes.
The PDP won 17 of the 30 local government areas of the state, while the APC won the remaining 13.
In its report on the election, Situation Room said codes and coupons were used to extract commitments from voters as opposed to the blatant money exchanging hands observed in the Ekiti State governorship election.
Situation Room, a coalition of over 80 CSOs, also reported that adequate security was deployed across most of the polling units, noting that no violence was recorded, with the numbers of people who came out to vote encouraging.
It also said its observers identified that priority voting was given to the elderly and persons with disabilities (PWDs).
‘There was open negotiation of buying and selling of votes well-coordinated by the polling agents in many of the polling units’, Situation Room said in a statement.
‘There were no complaints from any of them against each other. Codes and coupons were used to extract commitments from voters as opposed to the blatant money exchanging hands observed in the Ekiti State Governorship election’.
The statement added, ‘INEC’s deployment of materials and personnel should also be commended. Vote trading was recorded in most of the areas observed particularly outside Osogbo’.
As for Yiaga Africa, it reported cases of vote-buying, intimidation of voters and malfunctioning of the Biometric Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) in some polling units.
It made the observations in its preliminary report on the election that was conducted in the 30 local government areas of the state on 16 July.
‘Also, in Disu polling unit 003, ward [seven] in Orolu LGA, APC agents were seen distributing N4,000 to voters who voted for the party while PDP party agents were seen distributing N2,000 to induce voters’, the Yiaga Africa report read.
Meanwhile, CDD has urged INEC to replicate the successes of the June 18 and July 16 governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun in the 2023 general election.
In its report on the election, CDD expressed satisfaction with the polls, adding that despite apprehension about the possibility of violence, the process turned out to be peaceful.
Photo source: CHRCRPerspective
