Inconclusive Elections In Nigerian Democracy: Causes And Cures

Abstract

The Nigerian quest for democratic consolidation has in recent time been facing serious challenge owing to the spate of inconclusive elections. This study is therefore a bold attempt to critically examine the causes and cures of the new political development in Nigeria. The study is anchored on Systems theory propounded by Von Bertalanffy (1956).Content analytical method was adopted wherein data for the study were generated from the secondary sources such as articles in reputable journals, newspapers, relevant legal instruments, etc. After careful data analysis, the study came up with the following findings among others - that the series of inconclusive elections recorded overtime is majorly blamed by the inability of politicians to play by the rule; the declaration of inconclusive election is usually based on INEC guidelines and that laws on electoral violence before, during and after elections have not been strictly enforced, hence the high incidence of unimaginable violence during each election period. On the basis of the foregoing revelations, we made efforts to recommend as follows – that the Constitution and the Electoral Act must have overriding powers on matters relating to elections; that there should be renewed effort on the strict enforcement of laws bordering on electoral violence which has been recognized as the bane of Nigerian democracy.