ABSTRACT
The electoral process is a fundamental and thus indispensable structure in any democratic setting. The smoothness and transparency of its operation define political maternity of key players and stakeholders. The pattern of growth of electoral activities from 1922 to the fourth Republic is a reflection of development from obscurity to prominence from a pristine system to an advanced mechanism of securing participatory governance and confidence building in public policy formulation and implementation. It is trite law that the concept of “election” denotes a process constituting accreditation, voting, collation, recording on all relevant official electoral forms and declaration of results. Election is the cornerstone of democracy, it represents the reservoir of resources political, economic, cultural and social to complement and when necessary to check the power of the state. Nigeria claims to be democratic and seeks to prove that under the banner of representation and multi-party political system. Elections are used as a means by which representatives and policies are decided. The choice between political parties or individual candidate is made through elections. This paper is going to examine the development of several election laws that has been developed and the progression of the laws.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Cover page i
Title page ii
Declaration iii
Certification iv
Dedication v
Acknowledgment vi
Table of Cases viii
Table of Statutes ix
Abbreviations x
Abstract xi
Table of contents xii
CHAPTER ONE – INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study 1
1.2 Statement of the Problem 2
1.3 Objective/Purpose of the Study 3
1.4 Scope of the Study 4
1.5 Significance of the Study 6
1.6 Research Methodology 7
CHAPTER TWO – LITERATURE REVIEW AND HISTORY OF CONCEPTS
2.1 Introduction 8
2.2 Literature Review 9
2.3 History of Concepts 13
2.3.1 The post Independence Political Setting 13
2.3.2 The First Republic 17
2.3.3 The Second Republic – Fourth Republic 19
2.4 Progression of Post Colonial Electoral Laws 22
2.5 Conclusion 31
CHAPTER THREE – ELECTORAL OFFENCES
3.1 Introduction 32
3.2 Electoral Offences 35
3.3 Proof of Electoral Offences 54
3.4 Conclusion 56
CHAPTER FOUR – ELECTORAL LAW REFORM
4.1 Introduction 57
4.2 Events that led to the Reform 60
xiii 4.3 The Electoral Reform Committee 62
4.4 Amendment of the Electoral Act, 2010 67
4.5 Observation 72
4.6 Conclusion 73
CHAPTER FIVE –CONCLUSION
5.1 Summary 75
5.2 Conclusion 76
5.3 Recommendation 77 Bibliography 83
