An Appraisal of Electoral Malpractice and Violence as an Albatross in Nigerian’s Democratic Consolidation

Abstract

Election offences manifest in all forms of malpractices such as rigging, thuggery, vote buying, often times culminating in violence. These offences had remained an albatross in the Nigerian electoral journeys from the colonial period through the first republic in 1960 till 1999 when Nigerians started witnessing an untruncated democratic journey in her electoral history. Nigeria’s elections have always been marred by electoral malpractices and violence thereby shortchanging the citizens’ will and mandate expressed during elections. The general aim of this paper is to evaluate the impact of electoral violence and malpractices on the outcome of elections in Nigeria while the specific objective is to determine the solutions to this malaise for a better democracy based on popular elections in the country. The paper adopts a theoretical, doctrinal and conceptual method of research and utilizes Nigeria’s electoral laws, court decisions, as well as legislations criminalizing electoral malpractice and violence so as to arrive at a balanced and objective analysis. The paper found, among other things, that the electoral violence, thuggery and other malpractices have not abated since the new democratic culture in 1999 till date as malpractices and violence have been widely reported in all the States of the Federation in virtually all the elections from Local Government Council to Presidential elections. It is worrisome, even as the courts have showed that elections in Nigerians are a very emotional and quarrelsome matter. It is a matter where Nigerians fight to finish. In spite of its enactment into the Nigerian Electoral Laws, malpractices and violence have not abated, but rather increased. The paper therefore recommends the setting up of Constitutional or Electoral Offences Court to try and punish perpetrators of election malpractices and violence. In addition, the legislature should strengthen the provisions relating to malpractices and violence in the Electoral Act in order to punish those who breach the law whether they are agents or principal actors without favoring any political party, religious, ethnic or any other biases.