INEC Plans to Deploy ‘Undercover Agents’ To Polling Units To Monitor Elections

 

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced that it will deploy undercover security agents to polling units during the 2023 general elections, as part of efforts to curb the menace of vote-buying.

 

INEC National Commissioner in charge of voter education, Festus Okoye, made this announcement on Tuesday during a citizens’ elections dialogue hosted by YIAGA Africa and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Abuja.

 

According to Okoye, the commission’s commitment to delivering free, fair, and credible elections for all Nigerians is unshaken and it will partner with security agencies to place plainclothes operatives in select polling units.

 

By doing this, the INEC spokesman said, the commission is carrying out its mandate in upholding a transparent and accountable electoral system.

 

“We have also made sure that people do not enter the voting compartments with their mobile phones that can take pictures and we’re also collaborating with the different security agencies under the auspices of the inter-agency consultative committee on election security to make sure that plain clothe security personnel is deployed to some polling units on election day to stem the issue of vote buying and vote selling,” Okoye said.

 

 “This commission is focused and determined to give Nigerians a good election. In terms of the issue of vote buying, the commission has reconfigured the various polling units to guarantee the secrecy of the votes.”

 

“It’s fashionable to grandstand relating to the commitment of the INEC to free, fair and transparent election. But you should also flip back and look at some of the party primaries that some of the political parties conducted and how well they conducted them.”

 

Okoye added that the commission is making a deliberate effort to include technology in the electoral process to avoid “human interference.

 

“We deliberately decided to include technology in the electoral process in order to alleviate pernicious human interference in that process,” he said.

 

“We’re going to make sure technology is deployed and we’re also going to make sure that we transmit polling unit results into our INEC viewing portal.”