VOTE BUYING AND DEMOCRATIC SUSTENANCE: CASE STUDY OF BENUE STATE 2015 ELECTION
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
One of the fundamental problems of the democratization process in Nigeria is the conduct of free, fair and acceptable elections. Virtually all the elections conducted in the history of Nigerian politics have been characterized by one form of electoral problem or another. The 1959 election was widely condemned as unacceptable by most of the opposition parties (Post 2015; Ojigbo 2009; Dudley 2014). The 1963/64 election was also beset with problems and serious challenges, especially in the Western region and the middle belt, which crisis led to the collapse of the First Republic (Ingham 1997; Diamond 2015; Anifowose 2006); the opposition contested the results of the 1979 election, creating a crisis which led to the military takeover of the government (Joseph 2015). The 2010 elections adjudged the freest and fairest were annulled by the military government of Ibrahim Babangida. The 2015 elections the Nigerian people with no choice – the president who emerged was the product of the military. The 2013 elections were widely acclaimed to be massively fraudulent (Catholic Secretariat 2013), while those in 2007 were regarded as the worst ever conducted, at least partly because of the move from votes allocated by the electoral body to direct rigging. Among the problems associated with the conduct of elections in Nigeria are the electoral body, the electoral system and the electoral process. Nigeria has never had a truly independent electoral commission – the process of establishing them makes them part of the executive arm. For example, the 2015 Constitution vested in the hands of the president the responsibility for appointing the officers of the ‘Independent’ National Electoral Commission (INEC), which gives him the opportunity to appoint party loyalists. Hence, the general perception is that the INEC is a federal agency, rather than a federalising institution. The electoral system itself cannot be said to meet the demands of Nigerians. The first-past-the-post (FPTP) system and the secret ballot allow for all manner of irregularities and prevent adequate representation, which robs citizens of their right to elect credible politicians. In other words, both the FPTP and the secret ballot lead to ballot wastage, as only the winners (who win a minority of votes) are allowed to rule. In addition, the secret voting system allows for the manipulation of votes by the political elite and electoral institutions. The electoral process is also marred by irregularities ranging from the deliberate exclusion by the electoral agency, oen in collusion with the ruling party, of eligible voters from the voters’ register to the conduct of elections involving all manner of ballot manipulation for favoured candidates or parties. In all this, the votes of the electorate do not count. One of the major forms of irregularity is vote buying and vote selling. The development and sustenance of true democracy in Nigeria depends, to a large extent, on the
electoral system.
