In preparation for the 2023 general elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has made it known that they would monitor the sources of funds of politicians and political parties for their campaigns in the 2023 general elections.
This was reportedly disclosed by the INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, at a conference in Abuja on Friday, while being represented by its National Commissioner and Chairman, Committee on Party Monitoring, Prof Kunle Ajayi.
According to him, “As long as we have not notified anybody that the race for the 2023 general elections has started, we are not aware of what anybody is doing. We follow the law strictly.”
He maintained that, “We have not officially declared a notice for the 2023 general elections, but when we declare, we will put our monitoring committees to motion like the Central Bank of Nigeria, DSS, EFCC, the ICPC, and other law enforcement agencies. We have that plan already.”
He noted that, “Every candidate must be made to declare their bank assets. That is where they draw out their money, so we will make them present their statements of account right from the onset.”
He added that, “We will make it mandatory for them to turn in their bank statements so that if they say they are doing bill-board and the account remains the same, then there is a problem.”
Commenting on the menace of vote-buying, the INEC Chairman affirmed that, “We are going to establish finance monitoring teams and they will be among the electorate but they (politicians and political parties) won’t know.”
He stated that, “We are going to do it in a way that the influence of money will be reduced because we want to make the electoral field a level playing ground for both rich and poor candidates and electorates. Everybody will go in on an equal economic level so that nobody would influence the voting pattern.”
https://punchng.com/inec-wants-dss-efcc-others-to-monitor-politicians-campaign-spending/?amp
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