THE Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has disclosed plans to deploy undercover agents to polling units at the 2023 general elections.
The development is said to be part of the measures being put in place to cut down on the menace of vote buying.
The commission’s chairman on Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, revealed this in Abuja when speaking at a citizens’ election dialogue themed, ‘What makes a good election in Nigeria.’
Okoye noted that INEC would deploy undercover security personnel on election day.
“We have also made sure that people do not enter the voting compartments with their mobile phones that can take pictures. 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-clothes security personnel are deployed to some polling units on election day to stem the issue of vote buying and vote selling.
“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 elections. 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,” he said.
