How vote buying can be discouraged – INEC

INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, for Kogi State, Prof. James Apam on Thursday said in order to discourage vote buying, voters in the country should turn out en masse to cast their ballot.

Apam made the call at a ‘Stakeholders Consultative Meeting on Vote-Buying/Selling and Election Violence’ in Lokoja ahead of Saturday’s bye-election in Kogi-Koton-Karfe/Lokoja Federal Constituency.

While explaining the need for voters to turn-out en masse during elections, Apam said, “one thing that makes it too easy for people who want to disrupt elections is very low turnout”.

According to him, that is how vote buyers will be discouraged from buying votes from voters.

Speaking further, Apam advised voters not to sell their votes or “collect money and vote according to your conscience, insisting that nobody should collect anybody’s money for the sake of vote-buying at all.

“We will make sure that unauthorized persons don’t hang around the polling units because the buying and selling of votes are perpetrated mostly by those who hang around polling units.

“Security agents will be on alert to ensure that unauthorized persons don’t hang around the polling units.

“Indeed, the security agents will also report whatever cases of vote-buying they come across, apprehend culprits and bring them to the law,” he said.