Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) has alleged that it observed several ‘see and buy’ votes at Anambra polls.
Gatekeepers News reports that a preliminary report by the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) has alleged that there was a widespread vote buying by political parties during Saturday’s governorship election in Anambra, Southeast Nigeria.
CDD Director of Research, Sa’eed Usaini levied this allegation during a press conference in Abuja.
Usaini claimed that most of the electoral crimes were committed with security operatives looking the other way.
He said, “We have also noted widespread incidences of vote buying that will likely negatively impact the credibility of the election result.
“CDD observers reported numerous not so discreet cases of ‘see and buy’ in polling units across the 21 LGAs of the state.
“In many reported cases, police officers have been alleged to have looked the other way likely as a result of having themselves been compromised.”
The CDD Director also noted that there were reports of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) failing across numerous polling units in the state, adding that the repeated occurrence threatens the quality of the election outcome.
According to him, the BVAS failed to recognise voters’ faces and fingerprints, and those affected were told to wait till the challenge was resolved.
The CDD observers reported malfunctioning of the BVAS in Ayamelum Local Government Area with three polling units affected.
He further added that INEC resorted to the use of manual methods of accreditation and voting in some polling units.
The polling units include Akwa South, Awka North, Idemili North, Idemili South, and Anambra West local government areas of the state.
