Tag Archive for: vote-buying

Campaign Finance violation: JDPMC calls for sanction of culpable political parties,advocates E-voting

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In an attempt to curb the menace of voting buying and selling in Nigeria’s political context which is increasingly promoting Money-Bag politics and bad Governance in the Democratic era, the Justice, Development and Peace Makers’ Centre of Osogbo (JDPMC) has called for serious sanctions against any erring political party to this sacred law that stipulates the specific amount to be spent on electioneering Campaign.

This recommendation came to a fore at the Press Conference and Public Presentation of Report on Campaign Finance Monitoring Project Findings by the Justice, development and Peace Makers’ Centre.

A project targeted at tracking Political Parties and candidates’ Expenditures in the 2020 Edo and Ondo States Gubernatorial Elections to know how much they have adhered to the spending limits as stipulated by the Electoral Acts 2010, more importantly, to monitor the use of state Administrative Resources of some Political Parties as well as vote buying at the elections.

While making compare and contrast of what obtainable in the previous years and operational in 2020 Edo and Ondo Gubernatorial Elections, the General Coordinator of the JDPMC, Rev.Fr. Peter Akinkunmi said “there is a sharp rise in the rate at which Contestants bid at vote buying. In Osun 2018, five thousand naira was the highest tracked to have been paid to buy single vote, by 2020 in Ondo, it rose to thirty-five thousand naira per vote which has now led to a reduction in campaign activities and rising interest in vote buying”,

He stressed further that Law enforcement agencies are not equally doing justice to the all matter as they played indifference and turned blind eyes to such any scenrio which they ought to have risen against.

“While enforcement Agents, manage security at polling units, there seems to be consistent ignoring of vote buying as breach of law even within the vicinity of polling units raising questions as to whether they have the will to fight it as an Electoral offence. This is even more obvious when the fact is considered that there has not been anay reaction or response by relevant state Agencies to the contravention of the provisions of the law on Campaign expenses by political parties in the four major elections preceding Edo and Ondo 2020 within the last three years”. 

Therefore, Fr. Akinkunmi called for draconian measures that will serve as deterrent to others by criminalizing vote buying with severe prison sentence with no option of fine for those who are found gulity and full fledge of mandate efforcement of the Anti-graft Agencies should also be considered to this effect in order to ensure all round surveillance and checkmating of this Electoral foul.

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https://jdpmcosogbo.org.ng/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/2020-Press-Conference-for-Edo-and-Ondo-elections.pdf

Bi-weekly newsletter on Campaign Finance Tracking in Ondo Gubernatorial Poll, click on the details…

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The ability of citizens to decide through the ballot on how they are governed is a fundamental to a sustainable democracy. The process of the election is the foundation upon which democratic governments exists and functions must reflect without conflict, the equality, freedom of all eligible citizens to freely participate politically. To ensure a level playing field, money in politics must be regulated in line with several provisions of the electoral act to prevent the influence of money in deciding the outcome of elections.

This is why JDPMC in collaboration with IFES is currently tracking the campaign finance of selected contestants in the 2020 Ondo State gubernatorial election. This first edition of the newsletter covers the period of 16th of August to 30th of August, 2020 and shares highlights of findings from tracking the campaign finance of selected political parties in the 2020 gubernatorial election in Ondo state by JDPMC.

Click on the link below for the meaty details.

JDPMC Campaign Finance Tracking on ONDO POLL

Breaking: Data Analysis on 2020 Edo Poll, see total number of Wards, polling units& eligible Voters

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While Nigerians, more importantly, the good people of Edo State and the political parties concerned are patiently waiting for the outcome of 2020 Edo Gubernatorial Election, it is expedient to feed you with facts and figures of the election as part of variables that shall form the decision of the final result so as to put its veracity into test.

Justice Development and Peace Makers’ Centre, Osogbo (JDPMC) has again gone far and wide to furnish you with the total number of Wards, Polling units, registered voters, senatorial districts and eligible voters in the 2020 Edo poll.

Meanwhile, this development was borne out of the spirited efforts of JDPMC Osogbo to strengthen Democracy in free, fair and credible election process that will produce quality in leadership style and true dividends of Democracy. The link below shows short but meaty details of the Data Analysis of 2020 Edo Gubernatorial Poll.

Kindly click on the below link and find out the details.

DATA ANALYSIS OF 2020 EDO ELECTION

JDPMC bi-weekly newsletter on Campaign Finance Tracking in Edo gubernatorial Poll reveals…

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There is no doubt that the Electioneering campaign is pivotal to every political party in Nigeria even across the World. It has proved vital and indispensable for it determines who holds the winning card at the polling booth and takes the mantle of leadership for the next four years. Political Analysts had over the years laid credence to its significance in the political space that it works like a magic formula. As much as this political gimmick is yielding results for all the candidates and political parties respectively, it should also be noted that it undermines the good governance spirit in the country thereby leaving the downtrodden masses at the mercy of hunger, retrogression, unemployment, frustration, economic somersault, disloyalty to their country and most of all crimes.

For this reason, a legal framework governing political campaign finance was established in Nigeria in an attempt to bridle the spending limit of all political parties during the election season that often breeds electioneering campaigns. In spite of this initiative, monetization of the people’s will is still prevalent, likewise vote-buying gaining momentum in the face of level playing ground, justice and fairness.

Being part of her mandates, the Justice, Development and Peace Makers’ Centre (JDPMC) through the support from the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) had since 2018 been on the mission of why this nation’s malady must STOP while normalcy should reign supreme and the act of fair-play practice must be equally embraced by all and sundry especially political actors and gladiators.

JDPMC time and again chose the 2020 Edo Gubernatorial election to access the level of compliance of this adaptation of electoral recommended practice by training 42 Campaign Finance monitors in Edo State and deploying them to track Campaign Finance expenditures of Four (4) Selected Political parties in the state.

The political parties are AllProgressive Congress (APC), Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), Young Peoples’ Party (YPP) and LabourParty. The field monitors used the Parallel Expense Tracking (PET) Method and mobile technology called JICAFIMO Mobile APP to collect and collate data on party expenditures.  Below link is a newsletter that shows the findings of the field officers, kindly click on it to avail yourself of the information therein.

JDPMC_CAMPAIGN FINANCE TRACKING