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Electoral Malpractice And Democratic Consolidation In Nigeria.a Study Of Fourth Republic
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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the study
Elections
have not only become an instrument for the demise of authoritarianism or
a transition to democracy but the credibility of electoral process
has equally become the instrument for determining the integrity and
legitimacy of a democratic regime. Credible election is the general
acceptance of its conduct as free and fair by citizens and international
community. It means one thing to conduct an election and make
a transition to democracy or even conduct regular elections for
years after transition. It also means another thing to have credible
election that is generally accepted as free and fair by citizens and
international community. Acceptability of election results by
stakeholders would therefore increases the chances of
consolidation of democracy.
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. It is
upon this premise that this study seeks to examine electoral
malpractice and democratic consolidation using the fourth republic as
case study
1.2 Statement of the problem
After a decade and half of
democratic experiment yet, efforts towards democratic consolidation in
Nigeria’s fourth republic have been facing the challenges electoral
malpractices. The crisis of democratic consolidation as a result of the
challenges of electoral malpractices manifest in form of corruption,
insecurity and weak democratic institutions. The significance of
democratic consolidation in Nigeria like in other new democracies
depends largely on the conduct of free, fair and credible election. 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. Paramount
of these obstacles is election malpractice which affects the very roots
of democracy election.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.
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ABSRACT - [ Total Page(s): 1 ]The focus of this study is to examine electoral malpractices on democratic consolidation in the fourth republic. The researchers adopted historical and descriptive methods. Information was sourced from secondary data collated from journals, articles, library materials and internet sources which are related to the study. Findings from the study revealed that electoral malpractice in Nigeria Fourth Republic have resulted into the imposition of corrupt and illegitimate leaders who have no regard ... Continue reading---
