ASSESSMENT OF ELECTION MALPRACTICE AND DEMOCRATIZATION IN NIGERIA’S FOURTH REPUBLIC

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.”“It 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.