Open negotiation of vote-buying characterised poll, situation room alleges

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Civil Society Situation Room yesterday alleged that there was widespread open negotiation of buying and selling of votes well-coordinated by polling agents in many of the polling units across Osun state.

Situation Room Convener, Ene Obi insisted that there were no complaints from any of them against each other, adding that 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.

According to Obi, there was adequate presence of security personnel across as deployed across most of the polling units visited, adding that security personnel were friendly and professional in their approach.

EFCC arresting a suspected vote-buyer during the last governorship election

She pointed out that a number of them complained of not receiving their allowances ahead of the election.

She went on: “Some of the polling units were sited in residential spaces and palaces. In the polling units with large registered voters, the voting areas were rowdy implying that polling units with smaller numbers units are more orderly naturally.

“Political party agents were present in most of the polling units observed. A minimum of four party agents and maximum of six. Knowledge of voting procedures and civic education of voters was very poor. Voting cubicles in many of the polling units were not positioned to ensure secrecy of the ballots making it possible for voters to flash their votes to other people.

“The BVAS were deployed according to the number of registered voters. In polling units with over 1,000 voters, INEC kept to its promise to deploy two BVAS machines. The machines functioned credibly well. There were issues with the fingerprint verifications, however, the facial capture worked very well, recording approximately one minute for accreditation and voting in Osogbo, and in outside areas, it took longer.

“Priority voting was given to the elderly and persons with disabilities in most of the polling units. Situation Room noted that a few of the polling units were located in places with staircases making it inaccessible for people with clutches.”