Abstract

Posted: January 5th, 2023

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Abstract

Elections present one of the critical components of democracy in society. Voting represents the democratic component of the electoral system. The electoral systems always drive the elected officials within each democratic state in any nation within the particular country. As per the constitution of any county, the legislature must ensure the accountability of the various individuals to their constituents. The electoral system is usually designed by individuals who are in the motion to achieve specific goals within the election system, which translates to unfair and personal ambitions in drafting the government electoral systems. Some of the goals of electoral system include; accountability to constituents, stable government, interethnic representations, and the Condorcet winner’s victory. As illustrated in the essay below, these goals represent the achievements that have been the goals in drafting Nigeria’s electoral system, in which the majority has been achieved. Although the presidential elections have witnessed various violence, the country has managed to achieve most of the goals; hence the few recommendations as per the paper will drive to the full achievement of the country’s election goals. 

Nigeria’s electoral systems

Goals and objectives usually drive the evaluation and design of a new electoral system. The designed electoral system is mired to shaping and reshaping the political environment depending on the goals that the particular country wishes to achieve. As the electoral systems are defined to guidelines in conducting elections and referendums and methods of determination of results, an effective electoral system should aggregate the voter’s preferences and thereby convert them into electoral results (Kerr and Nicholas 670). However, the electoral systems are biased in the decision determination mechanisms hence translating to the structure of choices that confront the voters, hence changing the choices they are likely to have made under other electoral systems. Therefore, this describes the voters’ preferences being shaped by the electoral system, hence imperfect reflection of the voters’ choices and preferences. Therefore, since individuals design the electoral systems, their decision is usually based on attaining specific goals in the electoral system. In addition, the electoral systems designs shape how the politicians and their constituents behave. Since the transition of power from the British to Nigerians, Nigeria has witnessed various reforms in the electoral systems to the current multiparty electoral system. The change in the electoral system in Nigeria has all been designed to reshape the various political disputes that have been accompanying the elections in the country and attain fair representation in government ethnically and democratically.

Goals of designing an electoral system

Accountability to constituents

Accountability comprises of the fundamental components in politics where the leaders elected should be accountable to the citizens who voted for them into the various positions. An electoral system that limits the central party’s power in choosing the candidates results in more responsive representatives being elected. The nation list-system of public relations, when chosen empowers party leaders to decide the candidates most preferably in the various positions on the parties’ list, standing better chances of being elected by the citizens (Kerr and Nicholas 672). Although this policy is adopted, it limits voters’ sovereignty in choosing the candidates rather than choosing among the candidates.  The policy, once adopted, contributes to the various problems in accountability in the legislative arm due to the absence of effective mechanisms that ensure accountability. This is due to the house leaders’ unbiased nature and dynamic parliamentary committees, which were chosen out of the leaders that the political leaders instituted.

Durable governments

An electoral system in any country does not guarantee the individual opinions of every voter. Some electoral systems, however, when adopted, provide for more extensive representation resulting in fragmentation of the legislature hence resulting in distributed representation among the political parties such that no party has got more than 50 percent seats in any election. Whenever this occurs in any nation, it is challenging to put up a durable coalition. In contrast, some electoral system when adopted forces the parties to aggregate divergent opinions in society to consider the electoral process (Iloh et al. 112). As a result, the divergent opinions have been represented along with the political parties instead of across the political parties. Therefore, the number of political parties reduces tremendously to few significant political parties; hence, this contributes to stable governments’ formation. As a result, the stable government promotes policy consistency and responsibility, which reduces the political instability that could have resulted in the creation of fragile and unpredictable coalitions.

The victory of the Condorcet winner

As adopted by the government, the winner of the elections is the individual candidate-receiving majority of the votes in a paired or head-to-head contest against the other candidates (Iloh et al. 115). According to the law in the country adopted, the Condorcet winner is the most popular candidate, and thus the individual’s results are preferred.

Interethnic and interreligious conciliation

The various electoral systems that produce proportional results, translating to accountable results to constituents and the durable governments, have often been considered to contribute to interethnic conciliations. The electoral system as planned allows for ethnically reserved seats, multiseat constituencies, and ordinary roll elections, which provides the politicians with the freedom to cooperate across the various ethnic groups since they cannot win the elections on account of their ethnic line  (Iloh et al. 110). Thus, the policy allows for the pooling of votes with other candidates of various ethnic groups who run for various groups at the constituency level. In addition, the policy provides the candidates to gain regional vote distribution to the national popularity since groups are regionally concentrated.

The electoral system in Nigeria

As per the law in Nigeria, the country adopts a multiparty system of elections. There are two-three political parties in Nigeria that are usually successful. However, the People’s Democratic Party members had dominated the winnings in the Presidential elections since 1999, when elections were resumed up to 2015 when the opposition leader won the defeated the incumbent president. According to Ifedi, Francisca (80), the Nigerian law allows for the election of a Federal head of states who is declared winner upon winning the majority votes in an election against the various contestants and is usually elected by the people. In addition, the law provides for elections of the legislature members on which the country has got two chambers, that is House of Representatives which has got 360 members who are elected on a four-year term in a single-seat constituency (Ifedi, Francisca 89). The Senate consists of 109 members elected on a four-year term to represent the 36 states that are further subdivided into three senatorial district divisions. In addition to the Federal Capital Territory that one senator also represents, one senator represents each senatorial district. The senate form the upper chamber in the Nigerian electoral system. The independent National Elections Commission (INEC) is tasked with conducting and supervising the elections in Nigeria. According to Nigeria’s electoral systems, the elections are conducted in various stages, pre-election stage to the results election.

At the pre-election stage, the candidates present their manifestos to the public. As per the constitution, the electoral commission announces the location data. The various individuals within the society are encouraged to register to the commission to cast their votes. The various aspirants seeking to run for the various platforms face off the party screening and primary elections against the other competitors at the primary stage. Thus, the winners are nominated to the various positions to contest for in the general elections (Ifedi, Francisca 75). As per the electoral system, the nominations stage allows for the presentation of the foe runner for any candidate in the elections by the political party with the various contestants. The electoral commission thus stipulates the period for campaigns for the various candidates. The commission further stipulates voting methods to be adopted through the Continuous Accreditation and Voting Systems procedure. This is further followed by the production of the ballot papers and the other polling materials, voting and enumeration of the cast votes, as well as declaration of the results for any elections, respectively.

Goals met from the Electoral system.

As formulated in the goals for defining the electoral systems in Nigeria electoral systems, several of them have been achieved in the electoral system. For instance, Nigeria adopts the nation list- system pubic relation in which party leaders can choose the candidates who are the most influential and highly likely to win the elections (Ifedi, Francisca 77). This has, however, accounted for the various accountability to the constituent’s problems since the majority of the leaders elected under this regime are usually driven by personal gains. The military rule in Nigerian politics and the pursuit for political power among the governing political class, which has been viewed as the assurance for unlimited and overpowering access to state socioeconomic resources, have been revolted to personal gains hence lack of accountability for the public.

Since resolving the political parties in Nigeria to merge the various individuals from various groups, it has resulted in more stable governments. However, there have been several instances of political instability being experienced in 2015 and 2019. The goal has resolved the aggregation of the various groups, which has consequently reduced the number of political parties hence the fair competition in politics, which has led to reasonably stable governments. Adopting the victory of Condorcet winner into the system in Nigeria resulted in the announcement of Muhammadu Buhari as the winner of the 2015 presidential elections who won by more than 2.5 million votes ((Iloh et al. 105). The incumbent president conceded defeat through the policy before even the results were announced, marking the first incumbent president to lose an election to Nigeria’s opposition.

Kerr and Nicholas (669) argue that merging the various political parties into a few political parties resulted in a reduced number of political parties, representing three major political parties in elections in Nigeria. The merging of the various political positions from the various ethnic groups culminated in merging the various ethnic groups in Nigeria. This has thus resulted in the representation of the various multiseat presentations in the parliament’s two chambers. The interethnic relationship has resulted in the provision of regional distribution to national popularity due to regional concentration.

Mechanisms to improve the electoral systems in Nigeria

The Nigeria system of election needs improvement in the various areas to eliminate the constant post-election violence that it has witnessed over the past. For instance, the system needs a more defined interethnic representation system, which will resolve the various post-election violence like a national political party that incorporates all the various political parties in the society. The election system should further incorporate the peaceful mechanisms of power transition from the incumbent government into the incoming political system.

Conclusion

Ultimately, the electoral system is defined by the various individuals in the society who are on the drive to achieve specific goals and objectives such as stable government, interethnic representation, and accountability to constituents. However, some goals are driven by personal gains, such as the national list public relation system, which deprives the citizens of the power to electing individuals among the chosen candidates rather than freely electing the various candidates according to their choices. This, therefore, translates to the conclusion that the citizens’ choices are driven by specific political systems instituted by the government. The various political designs have been achieved in Nigeria in electoral reforms such as the interethnic representation of individuals and the adoption of Condorcet as the winner of electoral elections.

Works cited

Ifedi, Francisca Obiageli. “The Theory and Practice of Electoral Processes in a Democratic Transition: A Comparative Study of Nigeria and South Africa, 1999-2004.” HOFA: African Journal of Multidisciplinary Research vol. 2, no. 1, 2019, pp. 71-91.

Iloh, E., N. Michael, and Queeneth Ekeocha. “From millennium development goals to sustainable development goals: Gender and inclusive electoral politics in Nigeria, 1999–2015.” Asian International Journal of Social Sciences vol. 17, no.3, 2017, pp. 101-127.

Kerr, Nicholas Nathan. “Election-day experiences and evaluations of electoral integrity in unconsolidated democracies: evidence From Nigeria.” Political Studies vol. 66, no.3, 2018, pp. 667-686.