The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has described vote buying as a virus that must be crushed if the nation must deepen democracy and transparent electoral process.
The commission said vote buying and selling posses a great danger to the emergence of credible leaders.
Prof. Godswill Obioma, Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for Ebonyi State, who stated this in Abakaliki on Thursday during a media chat, described vote buying and selling as a phenomenon that crept into electoral process recently.
He explained that the acts amounted to an infraction against the law and punishable under the Electoral Act, urging political actors planning to engage in such during the coming elections to have a rethink or prepare to face the law.
The REC called on all stakeholders in the electoral process to unite and fight the scourge before it destroyed the nation’s democracy.
Obioma, while commenting on the preparedness of the commission ahead of the elections, revealed that a total of 199.583 Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) still remained uncollected in the commission’s office in Abakaliki.
“In summary, the total number of PVCs yet to be collected as at January 29, 2019, stands at 199.583 out of 410,943. This is 48.5% of the total PVCs,” he said.
He urged stakeholders to join the commission in sensitizing the people on the needs to collect their PVCs, adding that the last day for collection of PVCs remained February 8, according to electoral guidelines.
Obioma warned political parties against engaging in a campaign of calumny, hate, and divisiveness not to overheat the polity.
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