Anambra: TMG Demands Improved Equipment, End to Vote Buying

Chuks Okocha in Abuja

Barely hours after the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC), declared the winner of the Anambra State 2021 gubernatorial election, foremost civil society election observation organisation in Nigeria, the Transition Monitoring Group (TMG), has called for the improvement of election equipment especially the Biometric Voters Accreditation System (BVAS).

The group also urged the leadership of the security agencies to investigate and charge to court all security operatives who engaged in violation of human rights, and gross misconduct during the election.

The Chairman of the TMG, Mr. Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, noted that the pre-election season witnessed a lot of violence that marred campaign rallies of the various parties in parts of the state, eventually led to low voter turnout, an omen he said is bad for “our democracy.”

“The stand of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and the strong presence of security operatives had an effect on how voters came out to exercise their franchise,” Rafsanjani said.

The TMG boss, however, called on government to stand up to the challenges of insecurity in the country, so that the 2023 election would not be marred by voters’ apathy as was the case in Anambra State.

Rafsanjani said: “Voters were seen selling their votes for as low as N2000. In some cases, the security operatives looked away while vote buying was going on at some polling units.”

He, however commended residents of Ebenebe Community, Awka North, particularly women for publicly resisting vote buying in their polling units, urging “Nigerians to emulate the sterling example demonstrated by these heroines of the elections.”

Rafsanjani who doubles as Chairman, Board of Trustees of Amnesty International Nigeria, and Head of Transparency International Nigeria and Executive Director of the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), expressed dismay concerning the protest staged by police personnel over the non-payment of their allowances for the election.

He however, appealed to government and leadership of security agencies to make sure that the allowances of security personnel are duly paid before elections to prevent them from compromising their responsibilities on election days.

He said: “Once you deprive security operatives of their allowances during an electoral period, the higher the chances that they will be forced to be corrupt in order for them to survive.”

Similarly, the Vice Chair of the TMG, Mrs. Miriam Menkiti, lamented the poor functioning of the Bi-modal Voter Accreditation System, (BVAS) and card readers of INEC, which frustrated voters across the 21 local government areas of the state.

Menkiti said: “It is shocking that despite the consistent statement by INEC that the card readers were all set for the elections, we still witnessed a high rate of poor connection of the BVAS in various part of the state.

“TMG appeals to INEC to live up to the task of providing smooth elections for Nigerians in the 2023 general elections which will be cumbersome and overstretch the electoral empire.”