Th trending of open buying of votes witnessed in the Ondo and Anambra States gubernatorial election has been decried by top politicians in Nigeria.
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An elder statesman and ex-presidential candidate, Chekwas Okorie, has said the 2019 general elections would be a charade if buying of votes by political parties and their candidates is not checked.
Addressing a press conference in Abuja on the outcome of last Saturday's Anambra State governorship election, Okorie, the current national chairman of the United Progressive Party (UPP) called on the National Assembly to pass the necessary laws to usher in full Electronic Voting System (EVS) without delay.
He explained that the legislation should empower the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to prosecute violators of election funding provisions.
"If this dangerous dimension to winning election is allowed to spread across the country then our democracy is doomed. The much expected 2019 general election will be a mere charade.
"The implication of this unfortunate development is that politicians will consider it wasteful and unnecessary to promote their parties manifestoes and canvass their blueprints for governance during campaigns in order to sell their party and candidature to the electorate.
"Politicians will consider that all that they have to do is to amass wealth, set up shops at polling booths, out-bid their rivals and wait to be congratulated and celebrated for a landslide victory.
"If this is allowed to gain root, then criminals, money launderers, treasury looters and their likes will take over the political space, occupy juicy elective and appointive offices in Nigeria from the next democratic encounter in 2019.
"In that way, democracy in Nigeria will definitely assume a new and ridiculous definition. Nigeria will be ruined.
"There should be strict laws prohibiting any person from carrying a certain amount of money within the vicinity of a Polling Unit. We hope that INEC, the National Assembly, the Presidency, public affairs commentators, pro-democracy organizations and donor agencies should intervene in their various capacities to save our democracy from going to the dogs," he said.
The UPP fielded a former Minister of Aviation, Chief Osita Chidoka, as its candidate for the Anambra State governorship election held last Saturday.