Vote buying not threat to Osun LG election — OSSIEC chairman Abioye

The chairman of the Osun State Independent Electoral Commission, OSSIEC, Hashim Abioye, has assured that vote buying will not be a threat during the local government election in the state.

Newspot recalls that OSSIEC has set the date of the local government poll in Osun State for Saturday, February 15, 2025.

Abioye made this known while fielding questions from the journalists on the sidelines of a one-day workshop for board members, management staff and other categories of OSSIEC staff on Thursday in Osogbo.

Abioye revealed that there may be other challenges that may surface during the local government poll but insisted that vote buying is not so pronounced as it was recorded during the general election.

He said: “Election is election. The only difference is the election management body. You’d agree with me that vote buying is not as pronounced in the local government elections

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“Without any apology, vote-buying is not a threat to elections at the local government levels. There may be other challenges for local government elections but when it comes to elections at the local level, vote buying is not as pronounced as we have it in the general elections.

“I want to assure you that the incident of vote-buying will not be as pronounced as we have in other general elections.

“What I am saying in essence is that we have in place facilities that will help us curb the incidences of vote buying.

“We will come together at the end of the day and give us credit that I said there would not be an incidence of vote-buying and there was not.”

The OSSIEC boss also revealed that all the registered political parties will partake in the local government elections even though some are in court to challenge the non-inclusion of their candidates.

“We acted upon the report of the Verification Committee. We could not bend the rule for any political party and that is what some of the affected political parties are battling out in the courts now.

“You can see that the issue is not about the process but about some people not having the opportunity to participate in the election as candidates because of the factors that affected them.

“So it is not about the generality of the election and it is not about all the political parties; so we have the commitment of all the political parties participating in the election,” he said.

He also held that litigation is part of the electoral process and not a problem at all.

“Litigation is part of the election process. It is not a problem at all. As they come, we tackle them. We cannot rule out litigation. It is part of the electoral process

“What I am saying is that there is nothing as we have it today that has stopped the election process and I don’t think that there could be anything that will stop the election process,” he said.