Bright Side of Nigeria’s Cash Shortage: Vote Buying Declines

William Clowes and Ruth Olurounbi
·1 min read

(Bloomberg) --

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Vote buying comes standard in most Nigerian elections. Common scenes outside polling stations involve party operatives handing out anywhere from 500-to-10,000 naira ($1.09-to-$21.70) to voters.

But this year is different — an acute shortage of naira notes that has crippled Africa’s biggest economy in the run up to Saturday’s election seems to have sapped political parties’ ability to pass out cash. There wasn’t a bill to be seen at one polling unit in the Maitama neighborhood in the capital, Abuja, that was the scene of blatant payments during the 2019 election.

For the well-funded main parties, that could mean depressed turnout. But the Rivers state gubernatorial candidate for the upstart Labour Party — whose presidential nominee led most polls ahead of the election — said she thinks it could be to their benefit.

“Major parties may not be able to have the amount that they would’ve required,” said Beatrice Itubu. “We don’t have the money, so when there is less money for them to spend, it is an advantage for us.”

The nation’s electoral commission has vowed to fight vote buying and there have been television advertisements supported by the MacArthur Foundation, a US nonprofit, exhorting voters not to take cash to cast their ballot..

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