The Nigerian Electoral System

Recall that an electoral system is a method through which citizens of a certain country elect their presidents, governments or other administrative or political officials to oversee the affairs of the nation. This method determines and spells out the criteria required of a candidate or a party before they can participate in the elections and the way votes are counted.

Describing the Nigerian Electoral System

There is a specialized committee responsible for the elections each time an election is held in the country. This committee organizes the pre-election run, controls all the conditions of this period, and prepares everything needed for the voting process, etc. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is the current committee set up to oversee electoral processes in Nigeria. INEC organizes the pre-election run, controls all the conditions of this period, prepares everything for the voting, and so on.

Every electoral process starts with a pre-election period, during which all the candidates work with people, present their manifesto and try to win their liking, giving promises, convincing the people, etc. To a great extent, this determines how much support candidates or nominees, or political parties receive from the citizens of the nation.

A lot of preparations are done by political parties usually before the actual voting takes place. For example, there is a need for each party to select its own candidate for each constituency. In a situation where there are six political parties, there may be as many as six candidates in each constituency. A candidate is a person nominated to represent a party and to be voted for in an election.

The number of candidates usually matches the number of political parties. If there are five parties, there will be five candidates in each separate constituency.

Then, all the parties need to get registered. The process of their registration is regulated by special laws and rules. All the voters who have reached the voting age and have a legal right to participate in the voting need to pass a registration, too. Only the registered individuals are eligible to vote. Registered parties are allowed to run their campaigns to win the liking of the audience. These campaigns are also regulated by special laws and rules and should never collide with the law or the right of citizens to express their political preferences by voting.

Usually, prior to any general election, all persons qualified to vote are called upon to register themselves and it is only those who register that can vote. It is the duty of the Electoral Commission to carry out the registration exercise. Criteria to register include nationality and that the person must be 18 and above.

Candidates of a party have to campaign directly for votes. This involves presenting the party's manifesto or programme to the electorate. All the party intends to do if elected into power is contained in the party programme. The citizens who are the voters will be the final judge as to which party they believe to have the best programme and intentions. The candidate moves from town to town, city to city and state to state in order to canvas for the votes of citizens of the country.

The Secret Ballot System in Nigeria

The secret ballot is a system of voting whereby voting is done secretly. Most democratic countries operate the secret ballot. A ballot is a paper containing the candidates of each party vying for a particular electoral position and its through which the elector votes. Under the secret ballot system, the voter goes alone into the ballot booth to vote for their chosen candidate and drops his ballot paper into the ballot box. The secret ballot is introduced in order to protect the voter from possible persecution and intimidation. In addition, this is so because aside from the voter no other person knows the particular candidate the voter votes for.

The actual voting activity is done within a set day and period i.e. the voting hours can be from 7.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m. on a fixed date. Each voter who is eligible has to cast his vote within the stated hours. Once the voting exercise is over, the ballot boxes are carried to the counting center and counted immediately and the results of the election are immediately announced by the Returning Officer after the counting.

The Electronic Voting System in Nigeria

The system of electronic voting is one the most effective inventions that can be applied to the voting process. Under the proper handling and control, they make it impossible to falsify results of the voting or rig an election. Election rigging is the act of dishonestly organizing an election to get a particular result. it is an electoral fraud and an interference with the election process.

Of course, electronic systems can be hacked, too, and it’s possible to make them count the votes in a way that’s profitable for a certain candidate but it’s much harder than falsification of regular ballots. This is why Nigeria plans to introduce the system of electronic voting in the 2019 election.

Comparing With Electoral Systems In Other Parts of the World

Most countries of the world prefer having several districts with a few winners rather than one in their legislatures. 54 countries out of 195 researched ones prefer having districts with a single winner only. 90 countries out of 195 prefer to choose only the districts with several winners. Finally, 38 remaining countries combine the districts with one and several winners.

In the world, the proportional system is the most popular one. Out of the 195 researched countries, 84 use this very system when they vote. 79 countries among the mentioned 84 use list proportional systems. Two of them stick to multi-winner systems while three more countries prefer other proportional systems. 34 countries out of the mentioned 84 choose to combine the proportional systems and the ones, in which the winner takes it all. 64 countries give their preference to the system where the winner takes all. The USA, Canada, and the UK are among them.

Different systems are used during different elections. For instance, in case it’s necessary to elect a president, many countries are likely to choose a two-round system, as a result of which the candidate with the biggest amount of votes is going to win. In elections for minor posts, there is usually no second round because everything is clear enough from the very first results. Additional voting is held only in situations when there are ties between candidates or something is reported to go wrong or illegal during the voting process.

In general, the basic principle of any democratic electoral system involves the safety of voters and transparency of the process. All the people have a right to express their opinion and vote for the candidate of their choice. At the same time, they need to be sure that they will not experience any negative consequence for their choice. This is why elections in many democratic countries are made to be anonymous and in most of the cases when people experience pressure from candidates, political parties or other structures are expected to be reported and incidents are expected to be treated with all seriousness.