Challenges facing INEC ahead of Kogi, Bayelsa polls

that may afftect the conduct of hitch-free elections by the Independent National Electoral Commission

In Kogi State, Governor Yahaya Bello of the All Progressives Congress seeking re-election for a second term, while Bayelsa Governor Seriake Dickson of the Peoples Democratic Party would be completing a second term in February next year. “I urge you to avoid persistent rescheduling of your primaries or late minute change of venue which sometimes disenfranchise your members and make effective monitoring by the commission difficult. Where political parties opt for direct primaries, there should be proper register of members otherwise it will amount to conducting an election without the voters’ register.”

Fears have been expressed in some quarters that the infighting over the primary could cost the party the governorship seat, as it happened in Zamfara and Rivers States during the last general elections. He said: “I am calling on President Buhari to ensure that there would be no gun-running and miltarisation during the November 16 governorship election. It is everybody’s concern, but we believe that the Federal Government would not be insensitive to the issues of security in Kogi State.

In recent times, vote-buying has become common in Nigerian elections and there is no reason to believe that Kogi and Bayelsa would be exceptions. Though the Electoral Act criminalizes vote-buying, because it is completely antithetical to the ethos and norms of democracy, it has become a common feature of party primaries and general elections conducted in recent years.

There are 186,798 unclaimed PVCs in Bayelsa out of the 923,182 registered voters, while 269,000 out of 1.6 million registered voters in Kogi are yet to collect their PVCs.

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