Electoral Integrity, Voters’ Confidence and Good Governance in Nigeria: A Comparative Analysis of 2015 and 2019 Presidential Elections
Keywords:
election, electoral integrity, voter's cconfidence, good governance, legitimacy, democracyAbstract
Most scholars of electoral politics regard election as the institutionalised means of mass political participation as well as holding government accountable by citizen in a democracy. Elections globally are marred by serious problems. Nigeria is not immune from these global challenges. These challenges manifest in the forms of over-shooting of the campaign finance, breach of political broadcasting codes, unreliable voters register etc. Specifically, Nigeria’s fourth republic in which six presidential elections had been conducted presents reasonable cause for logical introspection towards boosting integrity of the electoral process. Nigeria incorporated technology into the electoral process to improve voters’ registration. Also, smart card-reader machines are now used in the voting process as additional measure towards revamping the integrity of the electoral process. This research examined the relationship between and among the variables of electoral integrity, voters’ confidence and good governance in Nigeria. As a multivariate study, the research adopted the mixed research method in which data were qualitatively and quantitatively analysed. The study drew a population of 1200 respondents from three states in Nigeria (Kwara, Ekiti and Rivers) using the Taro Yamane statistical formulae. To complement these, forty-five interviewees were purposively selected for Key Informant Interviews (KII). The study is situated within the prisms of the Rational Choice theory. Findings from the study revealed significant joint impact of electoral integrity and voters’ confidence on good governance in Nigeria. The study recommended the need for significant improvement in the integrity quotient of elections as precondition for the global desire for good governance.
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