A civic non-governmental organisation, Yiaga Africa, will deploy 500 polling unit observers under its “Watching The Vote” Project in the June 18 Governorship Election in Ekiti State.
The Programme Manager, Elections, Mr. Paul James, gave the figure at a
workshop for Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) leaders in Ekiti State,
saying they will be selected from the sampled 250 polling units in
every LGA in the state.
James, who challenged the CSOs to be more proactive than re-active since
there is still a window before the governorship election, urged them to engage citizens and other stakeholders to ensure that the election is hitch free in the state.
The Programme Manager pointed out that even though vote-buying was not in existence in the past, it has been initiated, a reason for CSOs to intensify voters education to curb the menace during
elections in the country.
He noted that vote-buying starts in the build up to the election, stressing that it was heartbreaking the problem would still persists in Ekiti election.
According to him, “Poverty is been demonised. The fear is that we are going to see more of vote-buying in the coming election in the state.
“When the people sell their votes, they don’t have moral rights to
questions whoever emerged through that process.
“Instead of collecting those peanuts, they should rather ask the politicians to use the money for development purposes.”
The CSOs at the workshop, who condemned vote-buying during elections, called on the citizens to promote electoral transparency in the state while promising to increase voters participation in the governorship election through information.