First of all, Vote-buying is purely a transactional exchange in which the voter sells/trades in his or her vote to the highest political party bidder in an election. Buying of votes is not new to the nation, as this has become a widely used and heard term as well as a nuisance in our society, in other words, it is a recurring decimal during ballot season in our country.
This economic exchange is usually pulled off by men who cajole trusted political party leaders to participate in the undemocratic act during elections.
Aside from the vote-buying which happened in Ekiti State during their just-concluded governorship elections, the undemocratic act also occurred in the primary elections of top political parties: PDP – Peoples’ Democratic Party; and APC – All Progressive Congress, where delegates of the two parties’ congresses and conventions were allegedly bribed with the U.S dollars and Nigerian Naira alike by aspirants in the parties, looking for the political ticket to vie for the 2023 elections at various levels in the country.
Reports have shown that money is not the only handout in these elections, food items also make an appearance in the illegal economic transaction. Foods such as rice, groundnut oil, noodles, spaghetti, salt, and many other edible things make a show at the electoral ground. This happened at the Ekiti State gubernatorial elections and it purportedly occurred in the presence of INEC officials and security officials who turned the other way.
The undemocratic act is performed by agents. Some of these agents prefer the ‘see then buy’ method on election day instead of paying upfront, to forego a situation whereby voters would collect money and vote for a different candidate.
Voters would then proceed to snap their ballots with their smartphones and show them to the chairmen of the groups so that they can have their share of the largesse.
