By Emmanuel Elebeke & Alice Ekpang

Stakeholders from the Civil Society organizations have blamed corruption on our electoral system on desperation of politicians and described the presence of military personnel in elections as aberration to democracy.

The group which met under the auspices Focus Group Discussion (FGD) on Electoral Corruption in Nigeria Focusing on the 2019  General Elections, said the Nigerian democratic process has remained underdeveloped  because politicians have learnt to put their hands in the national till to execute their anti-people policies.

They said that despite steps taken  by successive administrations to improve on our electoral system, the country’s democratization journey has become uninspiring to lovers of democracy.

The National Chairman of Nigeria Labor Party, Alhaji Abdulkadir Abdulsalam , who decried the trend said that the presence of the military in polling units during elections is an aberration and a demonstration of laziness and uncertainty on the part of the government in power.

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Abdulsalam said that the military  scares and discourages the voters perform their civic duties thereby promoting apathy.

He added that rigging of elections start with the political parties’ primaries and that this primaries rigging is only possible with the big and ruling parties who have too many aspirants.

A member of the Civic Advancement for Rural Empowerment Initiative, Mr. Moses Oluwaseyi opined that the delay in signing the technological involvement in election process, the inefficiency of the card reader technology, lack of training of INEC personnel on the use of the card reader, poor voters education and political control over the system posed huge set back in the past elections.

Speaking on the way forward, the national Chairman of National Interest Party and Deputy Secretary-General of Inter-party Advisory Council (IPAC), Eunice Atuejide said that all stake holders should discharge their responsibilities without expecting something in return, governance and government offices should be made unattractive in order to give way to those who want to truly serve and that the Independent Electoral Commission(INEC) should work on the sabotage of the electronic device used during elections.

The  Focus Group Discussion (FGD) on electoral corruption in Nigeria focusing on the 2019 election was organized by Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) in Abuja to fashion out possible solutions to the menace of electoral corruption in Nigeria.

Vanguard