With Nigeria’s most important election less than 24 hours away, many people worry about vote-buying and the effect it would have on the election. What is vote-buying? Vote buying is an economic exchange between an electoral candidate and the electorate in which the candidate pays the voter an amount of money or any other material...
Category: Explainers
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FACT SHIELD: 10 ways to land in jail on election day
As we prepare to cast our votes on Saturday, it is essential that we continue to be law-abiding citizens. Ignorance of the law is not an excuse. To help you stay within the law, the CDD election war room has compiled a list of behaviours and actions that the law considers to be crimes on election...
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FACT SHIELD: How to stay safe during elections
Over the years, general elections in Nigeria have recorded some violence and killing, causing many voters to prefer to stay safe in their homes than go out to cast their ballot. This drives apathy. According to a report by Human Rights Watch, Nigeria’s elections since 1965 till date has had reports of widespread violence, which...
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Lessons from Fani-Kayode: Why you should not share unverified information
With the elections less than seven days away, misinformation and disinformation about candidates, and political parties are currently being peddled over social and traditional media. The aim of these disinformation peddlers varies, from discrediting their opponents to instilling fear into supporters and prospective supporters of their opponents. Unfortunately, the effects of information disorder are not...
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FACT SHIELD: You can be jailed 12 months for printing your PVC
The Nigerian presidential election, scheduled for February 25, is less than 20 days away, yet only roughly 79% of registered voters have their permanent voters card (PVC), which is required by law to vote. As a result of the difficulty encountered by intended voters in obtaining their PVC, many are looking for alternatives that will...
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FACT SHIELD: Few days to election, can a candidate step down? Here’s what the law says…
With the 2022 elections barely 24 days away, there have been various reports of candidates stepping down for other candidates or even alignments and coalitions. These reports have been debated, discarded and sometimes addressed by the candidates. True or not how do these reports affect the political ecosystem? Can a candidate decide to withdraw from...
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FACT SHIELD: All you need to know about pre-election opinion polls
By Aisha Ibrahim Abba & Raji Olatunji As the 2023 general elections draw nearer, opinion polls are becoming more popular and will get even a lot more popular in the days ahead, as more organisations conduct and publish results from these polls. But what exactly are opinion polls? How relevant are they to the forthcoming...
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FACT SHIELD: What happens when a candidate dies before or after election?
In the build to the 2023 election in Nigeria, the country has recorded the death of more than one candidate. This is an incident that often leaves the public confused and leads to more speculation on the electoral process. For instance, the demise of Audu Abubakar, the APC gubernatorial candidate of Kogi State in 2015...
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FACT SHIELD: Can you vote without PVC? Here’s all you need to know
There have been claims that Nigerians may be able to vote without their permanent voter cards (PVC) since their details are captured in the database of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). This is false, INEC has repeatedly made it known that citizens will not be able to vote without PVCs. Here is a breakdown...
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FACT SHIELD: All you need to know about BVAS, INEC’s new system for tackling electoral fraud
There’s been quite some controversy around the Bi-Modal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) being employed by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the presidential and subnational elections in February 2023. Some political parties have called on INEC to disregard the accreditation system, while others are in support of the bi-modal biometric method. Here is a breakdown...