Elections and poor voter participation in Nigeria: insights from below, 1959-2019
Keywords:
elections, democracy, participation, rigging, low turnoutAbstract
Nigeria's political leaders are elected by less than half of the registered electorate. The registered voters are often an infinitesimal percentage of the voting age population in the country. In other words, greater percentage of the eligible voting electorates fails to register for elections in the country. Questions have continued to be asked, why do few Nigerian citizens seem interested in showing up to register as voters in elections in the country? Why do many of the registered voters in the country refuse to go out on pool days to exercise their right to vote? Writers that have volunteered to answer these questions seem to have done so with conflicting opinions. This work is an attempt to answer these questions with perspectives from below. This study also seeks to highlight the implications of such undemocratic behavior to the country’s democratic establishment. Primary data was collected by the use of mixed (closed and open-ended) questionnaires as well as oral interviews, while secondary data was collected through review of relevant literature. The findings are that Nigerian electorates fail to turn out to vote because of the personality of most party candidates that contest the elections, mal-distribution of political wards, lack of authenticity and genuineness of voters register, muscles and violence that characterize the elections etc.
References
Adekoya Remi. “Democracy has failed in Nigeria When Voters no Longer Care Who Wins’, 2019. Views on theguardian.com
Barber BR. Strong Democracy: Participatory Politics for a New Age, Califonia: University of Calfonia Press, 1984.
BBC Africa, 2019 February 28.
Becker Garry. A Treatise on the Family,Cambridge: MA Publishers, 1981.
Conway M Margaret. Political Participation in the United States, 2d ed., Washington DC: CQ Press, 1991.
Daily Trust, 2019 February 21.
Dahl RA. Democracy and its Critics, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989.
Dawns A. An Economic Theory of Democracy, New York: Harper and Row, 1957.
Eze Jonas.’The Church and Politics in Igboland, 1957-2003’, an unpublished PhD Thesis, Department of History and International Studies, University of Nigeria Nsukka, 2008.
Eze Jonas, Osuji Young. International Conflicts and Crises: Readings in International Relations and Diplomacy, Nsukka: FEPAM publishers, 2013.
Hudson E William. American Democracy in Peril: Seven Challenges in America’s Future, New Jessey: Charham Publishers, 2nd Edition, 1998.
Musa Auwal, 2019. Views on theguardian.com
Ojetunde Damilola. “2019 Election: Nigeria has the Lowest Rate of Voter Turnout in Africa”, 2019. in icirnigeria.org
Peter Baker. “Motor Voter Apparently Did Not Drive-up Turnout’, Washington Post, 1996 November 6.
Piver Frances Fox, Richard Cloward. Why Americans Don’t Vote, New York: New York University Press, 1989.
Power Jr GB. Elections as Instruments of Democracy: Majoritarian and Proportional Visions, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000.
Rosema M. Partisanship Candidate Evaluation and Prospective Voting, Electoral Studies. 2006;25(3):467.
Ruy A Teixeira. Why Americans Don’t Vote: Turnout Decline in the United States 1960-1984, New York: Greenwood Press, 1987.
