Osun 2022: PAN Warns Against Vote Buying, Verbal Attacks Among Candidates
- It is no longer news that vote-buying is now the order of the day for Nigerian politicians seeking political offices
- With the advent of technological approach in our electoral practice and with the new Electoral Act it is quite difficult for politicians to rig elections without brute force
- Meanwhile, the Positive Agenda Nigeria (PAN) has urged candidates to desist from such an approach in the forthcoming elections
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Osun, Osogbo - A non-governmental organisation with a data-driven research interest, Positive Agenda Nigeria (PAN), has applauded some new approaches some political parties in Osun State recently deployed to promote their candidates ahead of the state’s governorship election come July 16, 2022.
However, PAN warns political parties to refrain from statements that depict vote-buying and showcase verbal attacks, as such practices are unhealthy for democratic principles, Legit.ng reports.
Source: UGC
The organisation dropped these hints in its second weekly report on election campaigns ahead of Osun 2022 Governorship Election.
Although the report had instances where candidates and their supporters attacked the personalities of their opponents, the level at which they keyed into campaign issues improved better than the first week’s campaign traces.
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Campaign issues such as agriculture, economy, social welfare, education, and health, among others, are reflected more in this week’s report. This means the rate of acclaim outweighed the level of attacks among political parties and their supporters.
Verbally attacking political opponents is not campaign - PAN
The report reads:
“We implore all the parties, especially the two major parties, to sustain the atmosphere of increased acclaims instead of being attack-inclined in their campaigns. In the same vein, we enjoin the political parties to as well keep on focusing on issues of the state.
“The improved focus on programmes and policies of the candidates and their political parties should be continued. PAN commends the positive slight deviation observed in the parties and candidates’ engagement this week."
The organization says it condemns the introduction of insinuation of vote buying capacity by one of the candidates.
PAN sues for political campaign on radio for suburbs
As contained in the statement, PAN stated that it is too early for such issues to rear its ugly head in the campaign atmosphere for the Osun 2022 election.
PAN said:
“For a state like Osun, bringing up policy issues and campaign programmes using radio as a means of communication is commendable. It allows the people at the grassroots level to have access to campaign issues.”
Animasahun Adekunle Mojeed, a senior research analyst with the group and lecturer at Fountain University Osogbo’s department of political science, notes that the electoral body and agencies in charge of regulating party finance should begin developing strategies to ensure that vote buying is effectively controlled during the election. This, he stresses, is critical because ‘vote buying intent’ appears earlier than expected, which has tendency of jeopardizing a credible poll on July 16th, 2022.
It would be recalled that PAN’s objective is to monitor pre-election campaigns in Osun for 69 days. This report marks the end of day 14 of the 69 days.
Group appeals to APC delegates to shun vote monetization
The leadership of Fusion 774 has called on APC delegates not to devalue or monetize their votes during primaries.
The national coordinator of Fusion 774, Sadiq Jikta made this known on Monday, May 23 in a statement made available to Legit.ng.
Jikta in the statement appealed to delegates to work together and help foster a coexisting accord in fostering true democracy as it is required at a very critical stage of Nigerian politics.
Source: Legit.ng
