Electoral Reforms and Election Outcomes in Nigeria

Election is an umbrella word with a wide coverage that includes other activities before, during and after voting. These activities include planning, voter registration, constituency delimitation, arrangement of the polling stations, polling procedure, vote counting and announcement of results. Election is a decision-making process through which a people choose some individuals to hold official offices, or as the mechanism by which modern democracy fills public offices at every level of government. According to Ujo (2012), election is a process that permits affiliates of a group or society to appoint their officials into government. Moreso, Elections involve a democratic process of choosing who governs a particular group, society or state. As a critical aspect of democracy elections can take different forms depending on what the polity in question deems appropriate for use (Robert & Obioha 2005). Electoral governance is a comprehensive and multifaceted activity that takes place on three levels; rule making, rule application and rule adjudication. Rule-making entails creating the basic rules of the electoral process; rule application involves the application these rules to conditions in order to harmonize the electoral process; and rule adjudication requires resolution of conflicts that may occur in the course of the process. Generally speaking, electoral governance demands the interface of statutory, legal, and established rules and organizational practices that regulate the basic rubrics for election procedures and electoral competition. It involves organizing campaigns, voter registration and the vote count, resolving disputes and certifying results (Hartlyn, McCoy & Mustillo 2008). In tracing the origin of elections, approximately 508 B.C the ancient Greece implemented the earliest form of democracy. The earliest ballot system was voters wrote their choice on broken pieces of pots in ostraca in Greece (Hazen 2016) that put differently. The history of election in Nigeria can be traced from the introduction of elective principle in 1922 by the earliest Clifford constitution (Ogbue 2022), According Hammed (2022) The fundamental roles of elections in all democracies are as follows: it is an instrument through which the voting public compels accountability from elected officials; it confers moral authority on political leaders; it enables citizens to make enlightened choice. Within this context, election is seen as a legitimizing institution, functioning to give elected leaders the wherewithal to govern, it accords the elected government domestic and international legitimacy as well as moral title to rule; it provides a routine mechanism for recruiting and selecting individual to occupy seats in representative institutions; it acts as agents of political socialization and political integration, providing a unifying focus for the country; and it provides periodic opportunities to review the government’s record, assess its mandate and replace it with an alternative as was the case in Nigeria in March/April, 2015 general elections where Nigerians substituted almost all Peoples Democratic Party Candidates with that of All Progressive Congress. Ifediora (1999) and Agbu (2016).