Yiaga Africa: Naira scarcity may encourage vote buying

Yiaga Africa, a civil society organisation (CSO), says the hardship caused by the scarcity of naira notes may encourage vote buying during the general election.

YIAGA raised the concern in a statement on Thursday by Samson Itodo, its executive director, and Hussaini Abdu, chair of its Watching the Vote (WTV) working group.

The organisation said the purpose of the naira redesign policy may not be achieved as the resulting cash scarcity could encourage people to sell their votes.

Yiaga Africa also expressed worry over the possible challenges associated with the relocation of polling units and PVC collection problems.

“Economic hardship may impact on citizens’ participation: With barely 48 hours to the presidential elections, Nigerians are currently experiencing untold economic hardship caused by the recent scarcity of new naira notes and perennial fuel scarcity. This has led to a series of protests in different parts of the country,” the statement reads.

“This growing discontent amongst citizens may lead to voter apathy in the form of ‘protest’ which will eventually lead to low voter turnouts. We are also worried that citizens facing these forms of adversities going into the election may be unable to make informed choices at the polls.

“Possible vote trading: The current Naira redesign policy and scarcity of legal tender are aimed to fight vote trading on election day. The prevailing hardship it has come with may even make it easier for voters to relinquish their votes in exchange for the scarce currency.

“The mock accreditation revealed that, in an attempt by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to decongest some of its oversized polling units, the commission relocated voters to new polling units. However, voters approached their polling units for mock accreditation before realising they have been relocated to new polling units.

“While we commend the commission’s recent efforts by providing information on how voters can identify their polling units, we are concerned that not every affected voter may be able to identify their voting locations before election day. This will constitute panic, agitations, and potential disenfranchisement on election day.”

While expressing concern over security during polls, the CSO said INEC should not fail Nigerians in delivering credible elections.

“For the 2023 elections, expectations from Nigeria, the rest of Africa and international communities are indeed high with a lot of hope in the 2023 election consolidating on the gains from electoral reforms efforts,” the CSO said.

“There is indeed no room for excuses and a huge burden on INEC to conduct an election that inspires confidence in the process and in the outcome of the election.”