Vote Buying, Imposition And Democracy

The political parties have finally concluded the primary elections to nominate candidates that will be their standard bearers in the 2023 general elections. Except for a few cases of violence and confusion, most of the primaries were held peacefully. The security situation and sectional tensions in the country, which many feared would disrupt the smooth conduct of the primaries did not interfere with the processes across the country.
This peaceful turnout of the primaries is commendable as it is an improvement over the past election, seasons when violence, killings, confusion and litigations marred the primaries. Sadly, the primaries were highly tainted by reports of vote buying and imposition of delegates.
This is despite efforts by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to get the parties to keep strictly to laid down guidelines to ensure internal democracy and make their primaries credible. Lack of internal democracy has been a major problem in our electoral system which has locked out many especially, the youth and women, creating a general feeling of exclusion.
Apart from strictly guiding the political parties in the conduct of their primaries, INEC initiated a number of reforms that have created trust and given hope to the electoral processes in Nigeria.
One of such reforms is the application of digital methods for the registration of eligible voters. People can now register as voters from the comfort of their offices, homes and IT centres using their phones and internet-enabled devices to register as voters without having to spend hours in the sun waiting to be captured. They only go to INEC designated centres to pick up their personal voter’s card. People that are already registered but who wish to change their voting points can also now do it digitally.
These reforms have taken away the huge burden and bottlenecks associated with the periodic registration of voters preceding elections.
INEC has invested heavily in electronic voting and automatic transmission of results from polling points and has indicated preparedness to apply them in future elections. But these efforts are being frustrated by the National Assembly, which has failed to pass the requisite laws to enable INEC activate this revolution of the electoral process.
If INEC has been doing a lot to better Nigeria’s electoral processes, it follows that the first line beneficiaries of the reforms, which are the political parties, the political class and the National Assembly should appreciate these efforts and improve on their integrity and internal democratic practices.
Reports from the just concluded political party primaries, especially, those of the major parties, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) leave much to be desired.
First was the issue of internal democracy. The parties failed woefully to adopt democratic means to elect their delegates. Names of delegates were just compiled in the bedrooms of so-called party leaders and imposed on the ward, local government and state congresses. No room was given for party members to participate in the process of choosing those that represent them at local government, state and local and national events. This is unbecoming of political parties that should be the first clearing house of democracy. If we cannot get it right with the parties how can we get it right with the nation? This has to stop. Parties must internalize and domesticate democracy.
Another sad development that came out of the just concluded primaries is the increasing negative practice of vote buying. The reports from the presidential primaries of the APC and the PDP were to say the least, nauseating. A situation where an aspirant had to pay between $10,000 and $25,000 to buy the vote of one delegate is condemnable. Is democracy up for sale to the highest bidder? State treasuries were looted to fund these shameful exercises whereas pensioners are dying from non-payment and university students have been out of school for months because the federal government failed to honour its agreement with ASUU.
Votes are meant to be free as they are the expression of the genuine intention of the voters. When votes are bought and sold openly as did happen during the party conventions, it means that the outcome of the elections were not the reflection of the true intentions of the voters. The outcome of such elections ought to be annulled because they are already tainted.
Products of a faulted electoral process cannot genuinely serve the interest of the voters, and by extension, the nation. No real progress can come from such people because they owe their obligations not to the people but to the system that produced them – corruption.
Nigerian political parties must democratize and check corruption within their systems. Governments and elected executives and legislators produced through a corrupt and undemocratic process cannot offer good and responsive governance. The political parties must reform.