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Election Malpractice And Democratization In Nigeria’s Fourth Republic
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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
Democracy
is the system of government that promotes the participation of the
masses in government and the accountability of elected representatives
to the electorate. The representatives are public office holders who are
voted into office by the people through an electoral process; their
principal duty being to promote the interest of the electorate in the
government.
Election on the other hand is the life-wire of democracy.
It is the fulcrum around which democracy revolves. According to Osumah
and Aghemelo (2010),“election is a process through which the people
choose their leaders and indicate their policies and program preference
and consequently invest a government with authority to rule.â€â€œIt is the
procedure through which qualified adult voters elect their politically
preferred representatives to parliament legislature of a county (or any
other public positions) for the purpose of framing and running the
government of the country, Ozor (2010).†The trust in this mechanism is
that it allows the people to determine who and who should wield
political power viz-a-viz their various interest by providing the ballot
as an outlet for the expression of voter preference based on their
judgement about the integrity of candidates and reliability of
candidate’s party manifesto.
In Nigeria’s fourth republic the crisis
of democratization has been anchored upon the challenges of election
malpractice. Aside from the longer years of colonial domination and
post-independence military expedition that ended with the fourth
republic, elections in the country has been inundated with spiraling
malpractices in the electoral process as confirmed by domestic and
external election monitoring bodies during the elections of the fourth
republic.
The phenomenon of election malpractice has been a clog in
the wheels of democratization in the country even as the country
staggers with many other challenges such as corruption, factionalism,
insurgency, unemployment, poverty, illiteracy and ethno-religious
disharmony.
Consequently, this study focused on the challenges of
electoral malpractice in the aspiration for democratization in Nigeria.
Furthermore, the study critically analyzed the factors that are
responsible for election malpractice, and also attempt a look at the way
forward for subsequent elections in Nigeria. It is believed that the
study will contribute to the ongoing efforts of government to curb
electoral malpractice and thus engender stability in the country’s
democracy.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
A constant goal in
the fourth republic governments of Nigeria beginning from 1999 has been
the consolidation of the country’s democracy and democratic institutions
in order to improve her socio-economic stature as much as her
international image. However, this goal has met a range of nagging
obstacles including corruption, factionalism, ethno-religious
disharmony, insurgency, poverty and electoral malpractice.
Chief of these obstacles is election malpractice which affects the very roots of democracy – election.
Election
malpractice according to Ebrim S. (2014) is a process by which the
rules and regulations that govern the conduct of election are
manipulated to favour specific interests. There are three types of
electoral malpractices, pre-election, election period and post-election
period (Birch, 2009; Norris, 2012; Olawole et al., 2013; Ugwuja, 2015).
The manipulation of rules, the manipulation of voters and the
manipulation of voting. By manipulation of rules, electoral laws are
distorted so as to favour one party or contestant in an election. For
example, when the rules administering candidacy prevent certain
political forces from contesting elections, or when large sectors of the
adult population are excluded from voting. The manipulation of voters
is either to distort voters’ preferences or to sway preference
expression. The first one involves illicit forms of campaign tactics
that are deceptive and that violate campaign finance laws or severe bias
in media coverage of the election. The second form consist of
alteration of how preferences are expressed at the polling station,
through vote buying or intimidation in the aim of increasing the vote of
a specific political force. Voting manipulation consist of electoral
maladministration, such as ballot-box stuffing, misreporting,
under-provision of voting facilities in opposition strong-holds, lack of
transparency in the organization of the election, bias in the way
electoral disputes are adjudicated in the courts, and so on (Birch,
2009).
In the fourth republic of Nigeria, electoral malpractice stems
from a host of social factors inherent in the political system.
Scholars have attributed this problem of election credibility in Nigeria
to the weak institutionalization of the agencies of electoral
administration, particularly the Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC), the political parties and security agencies in the
country arguing that elections can only engender the consolidation of
democracy in Nigeria if the electoral processes are reformed in ways
that fundamentally address the autonomy and capability of INEC to
discharge its responsibilities effectively (Obi, 2008) and the security
agencies high degree of neutrality, alertness, and commitment to
maintaining law and order in the electoral process (Adigbuo, 2008;
Omotola, 2010; Idowu, 2010). The role of security agencies during
elections can be called to question as these are often utilized and at
other instances sidelined by hired thugs in the effort to intimidate
voters through violence and outright force. Also, the Election
Management Body- Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC),
suffers a comparative lack of autonomy during electioneering process as
this gives outlet for manipulation by strong political forces.The
culture of electoral impunity where electoral laws offenders are dealt
with leniently, (if at all) also links to the rampancy of election
malpractice in Nigeria’s fourth republic.
In response to this, this
study aims at investigating how these factors contribute to the disease
of electoral malpractice in Nigeria’s fourth republic as it affects the
country’s democracy, with special attention given to the 2015 general
elections in Akwa Ibom State. Furthermore, it suggests the way out of
the menace of election malpractice as a means of stabilizing the
democracy in Nigeria.
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ABSRACT - [ Total Page(s): 1 ]The conduct of free and fair elections has become the yardstick for measuring the strength and credibility of a country’s democracy. The absence of free and fair elections has become an almost insurmountable obstacle to democratization in most African countries, especially in Nigeria. The history of the conduct of elections in the country is predominated with the prevalence of electoral misconducts and malpractices which has weakened the nerves of democratization and the country’s ... Continue reading---
