INEC and the Electoral Process

Three elections were conducted in the redemocratization period of 1999–2007 in Nigeria: in 1999, 2003, and 2007. Each of these elections was very controversial, with the 2007 elections leading the pack. The degree to which the essential goals of any election—that is, to register voter preferences among competing parties and individuals, to ensure an orderly process of leadership selection and change, and to provide legitimacy and political trust for the government—were achieved was questioned in every one of those elections. Put differently, those elections were hardly credible. And no feature is more key to the definition of a democratic political system in a contemporary modern nation-state than credible competitive elections (Powell 2000, 4). These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.