Port Harcourt — The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has said the general elections would hold without bags of money at the polling units, adding that same would be the case during the Saturday's Presidential and National Assembly polls.

INEC also stated that it had concluded plans to conduct credible elections in Rivers State, urging all candidates and politicians to play by the rules of the game.

Head, Voters Education, INEC Rivers State, Mark Osulo, spoke yesterday at a national roundtable on the Roadmap to a Credible and Violence Free 2023 General Elections organised in Port Harcourt by Equity International Initiative, EII.

He assured that the Saturday elections would be free and fair, adding that the new monetary policy of the Federal Government has saved the process of vote-buying.

He said: "I assure you that the election is going to be free and fair. There will be no vote-buying. It is going in tandem with our plans with stakeholders.

"There will be no money to buy votes. We are going to experience an election without vote-buying. There will be no money to buy votes."

However, Country Director of EII, Dr. Chris Iyala, said the general elections were crucial to the survival of the nation, noting that the people were holding INEC to its promise of a free and credible election.

He said the roundtable was to identify what makes up a free and credible elections and ensure that the nation experience same in the elections to come.

Iyala said: "This election is crucial. We are focusing on the credibility of the election. In the 2019, we set election situation monitoring and we monitored election at 8000 units.

"We are holding INEC by their word on the statement that they will conduct a free and fair election. For the first time, we have witnessed how elections should be conducted especially with the Osun State election."