POLITICAL PARTICIPATION AND VOTING BEHAVIOUR (A CASE STUDY OF SOKOTO STATE 2019 GENERAL ELECTIONS)
Abstract
The liberal democratic system is judged by the level of citizen involvement in public issues.
Enabling processes and institutions, along with favorable political orientations, allow citizens to vote for their leaders in elections and influence the public policymaking process.
This ultimately helps ensure the long-term viability of the democratic system of governance. Therefore, the focus of this article is to objectively examine the level and behavior of Nigerian citizens in the 2015 Benue State General Elections.
That’s why we’re writing this paper: to learn more about INEC’s role in getting people excited about the general elections, the motivating elements that got people out to vote, and how well voters’ political conduct matches electoral guidelines. Additionally, the article examines how participation and voting behavior influenced the polls’ credibility and success.
To this goal, the research employs democratic procedural theory and the conventional Socio-Economic model, which postulates the elements intermediate between actors and their capacity to participate in. There is now a survey technique in place.
There is a consensus in the study that citizens’ ability to effectively participate in politics and their voting behavior are intertwined, and it is therefore recommended that in order to maintain political stability the electoral process be accommodating, allowing people to express their electoral freedom while also taking their socio-economic well-being into account.
Political participation, voting behavior, the liberal democratic system, political stability, and Electoral rules are some of the key terms in this discussion.
Introduction
In the more than 50 years that Nigeria has been a sovereign nation state, the history of political involvement has been one of political uncertainty. To achieve a lasting democracy, Nigeria has been fighting since its independence in 1960, but its dismal political reality,
characterized by its inability to conduct credible and transparent elections where its citizens have access to adequately enforced and effectively protected opportunities, has made the agenda of democracy sustainability a mirage.
This is why so many democratic transitions have failed. When the First and Second Republics were overthrown and the June 12, 1993 General Elections were annulled, the Third Republic was born (Dudley 1982).
A phenomena dubbed “The Slippery side of landslides” by Dauda has occurred in every transitional election since the country’s return to democracy in 1999, including the ones in 2003, 2007, and 2011. (Dauda 2007 p102).
As a result of “the parceling out of sections of the State and territory to people, usually under the leadership of one or two notables… who keep their prebends practically by force,” machine politics characterize election participation in Nigerian politics.
The “winning of votes by both objective and structural violence” and “disregard for the rule of law” is what Ibeanu refers to as the “primitive accumulation of votes” in elections under these conditions (Ibeanu 2007 p6). Because of the persistent rigging that occurs in such circumstances (Jinadu 2007; Mohammed 2007), elections cannot be trusted to be free and fair.
Several studies have been done on Nigerian elections, particularly those that have been conducted after 1999, but this one focuses on voter engagement and voting behavior. Because of the focus on election history, electoral violence, election law, security agencies’ role in elections,
electoral bodies’ role in elections, and electoral reform, previous studies have neglected to conduct empirical research into the factors that influence voter turnout and voting behavior. Filling this deficit by conducting an empirical investigation of political engagement and voting patterns during Nigeria’s general elections in 2015 in Benue State
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POLITICAL PARTICIPATION AND VOTING BEHAVIOUR (A CASE STUDY OF SOKOTO STATE 2019 GENERAL ELECTIONS)
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