Election administration and democratic sustainability in Nigeria: an assessment of the 2015 general elections

• Main Authors: Tunde, Sakariyau Rauf, Mohd Sani, Mohd Azizuddin, Ahmad Zakuan, Ummu Atiyah
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Medwell Journal 2016
• Subjects: JA Political science (General)
• Online Access: http://repo.uum.edu.my/22193/1/TSS%2011%20S%202016%206141-6148.pdf; http://repo.uum.edu.my/22193/; https://www.medwelljournals.com/abstract/?doi=sscience.2016.6141.6148
• Institution: Universiti Utara Malaysia

Electioneering process in Nigeria has always been marred with irregularities, malpractices and violence.However, the experience of the 2015 general election is a paradigm shift from electoral system largely characterised with fraud and manipulation to an internationally accepted electoral democracy.The sudden improvement as experienced in the 2015 elections was a product of internal and external factors.Internally, Nigeria was faced with many challenges ranging from security, economic depression, infrastructural decay and high level of impunity. All these, coupled with some other scenarios awakened the intervention of foreign powerful states and organisations in mounting pressure on Nigeria’s government to play to the rules of free and fair elections.Based on this, there was limited political interference and this enabled the electoral umpire (INEC) to strengthen the electoral process via introduction of certain mechanisms which improved the conduct of the elections.It is against this background that this study explores election administration and democratisation in Nigeria with emphasis on the 2015 general elections.The paper infers that despite the beauty of the 2015 general elections, there is need for further improvement in Nigeria’s electoral politics in order to enhance democratic sustainability and consolidation.