VOTE BUYING AND DEMOCRATIC ELECTIONS IN NIGERIA

Abstract

The study examines vote buying and democratic elections in Nigeria: a study of the 2018 Ekiti state gubernatorial election. Vote buying In Nigerian election is not a new phenomenon however; it has gotten a lot of spotlight as a result of its inherent ability of causing devastating effect on the body of politics and the democratic process of new democracies such as Nigeria. This is because vote buying has become an integral part of elections in Nigeria and has escalated to the point that some candidates add buying of votes as part of the political strategy, as they believe that manifestoes and integrity of candidates alone is not enough to win elections. This research therefore, aims to identify the manifestations, examine the impact, ascertain the catalyst and suggest possible mechanism to minimize vote buying in future Ekiti state elections. The study adopts the quantitative method been supported by the qualitative method of data collection and uses clientelism as the theoretical framework. The study discovered that vote buying largely affected the outcome of the 2018 Ekiti state gubernatorial election and identified some factors such as poverty, lack of voter’s education and poor execution of sanctions as catalyst of vote buying. It also suggests some recommendations in the bid to curb the behavior of vote buying in future Nigerian elections. The study concluded that without tackling the catalyst of vote buying in Nigeria election, the behavior of vote buying will keep on thriving.

Keywords

• elections