Government: Electoral Malpractices

 

Election

Contents – Electoral bodies

                 Electoral Malpractices in Nigeria

                 How to prevent electoral malpractices

Electoral Bodies

Electoral bodies are those who conduct and supervise election process. The constitution has provided for how elections should be conducted. Electoral malpractices, includes any act, omission or commission that attempts to or in essence circumvent the electoral process to favour a person, candidate or party. It is any wrongdoing affecting electoral procedures, electorates and electoral materials. Electoral Malpractice can also be defined as the manipulation of electoral processes and outcomes so as to substitute personal or partisan benefit for the public interest. The body in charge of election processes is called Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The body conducts election into federal and state electoral constituencies. Usually for the conduct of local government elections, the State Independent Electoral Commission (SIEC) is in charge i.e. the state government takes over the conduct of the local government election.

The INEC and SIEC are responsible for the

1. Conduction of voters’ registration,
2. Keeping custody of voters’ registers
3. Printing of Ballot Papers
4. Supervision of elections
5. Declaration of results
6. When there is an election petition, INEC and SIEC are officials also invited to give evidence and defense at the tribunal.

Electoral Malpractices in Nigeria

Electoral malpractices is the failing of all electoral institutions or bodies to carry out election in the proper or professional way it is supposed to be done.

It is any act that hinders free and fair election. i.e. it is any act of lawlessness that could stop or discourage people to cast their vote freely and sincerely.

Electoral malpractices can come in various forms which are:

1. Intimidation of voters
2. Partisanship by Electoral officers
3. Impersonation
4. Diversion of Electoral materials
5. Stealing of electoral materials like ballot boxes, ballot papers, voters register etc.
6. Under- age voting i.e. allowing those who are not adult to vote, those who are below the age of 18.
7. Multiple registrations of voters by a single individual.
8. Falsification or outright inflation of election results
9. Bribery and corruption in the form of giving money to electoral officers with the intention to make them change election results.
10. Keeping of electoral materials into personal custody and not with INEC or SIEC

How to Prevent Electoral Malpractices

The following are the ways by which electoral malpractices can be prevented

1. Arrest and prosecution of people who violate electoral laws.
2. Swearing exercise should not be done until all petitions are disposed of at election tribunals.
3. Customization of ballot papers in the form of putting the computer information about a registered voter on the ballot paper to prevent multiple voting.
4. The use of advanced information technology such as computers and forensic machine for detection of fingerprints will reduce the act of multiple registrations.
5. A person found guilty in electoral malpractices should be banned from politics for life.
6. Pressure groups should rise up from all quarters to oppose electoral malpractices
7. There should be a programme to educate the majority.

Test and Exercise

1. INEC stands for (a) Independent National Electoral Commission (b) Independent Nigeria Electoral Commission (c) Individual National Election Corporation (d) Independent National Election Commission. ans (a)
2. All of these are forms of electoral malpractices except (a) under age voting (b) multiple voting (c) Avoidance of violence (d) bribery and corruption. ans (c)
3. One of these is not the duties of the electoral bodies (a) conduct of voter’s registration (b) printing of ballot papers (c) supervision of elections (d) campaigning to voters. ans (d)
4. Failure to conduct a free and fair election is an attribute of (a) election (b) electoral bodies (c) electoral malpractices (g) voting. ans (c)
5. Electoral malpractices can be prevented by (a) arresting innocent voters (b) stealing ballot boxes and papers (c) arresting and prosecution of people who violate election laws (d) allowing under age vote. ans (c)