Election Observation in Nigeria’s 2015 and 2019 General Elections
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2022-12
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Abstract
Electoral observation is considered to be an important tool in the promotion of democracy. The presence of credible and impartial observers is taken as creating confidence about the legitimacy and quality of an electoral process. This study examines election observation in the Nigeria 2015 and 2019 general elections. The study made use of an interview guide as a research instrument. This is to help the researcher explore research subjects' opinions, behavior, experiences, and phenomenon during election. Also, random sampling technique was employed to select 8 respondents for the interview. The result of the findings showed that some of the roles the interviewees claimed are to serve as the eyes of the people, to provide an independent oversight of the electoral process by observing the process to documenting and what happened in the electoral process and share their findings with citizens and stakeholders. In addition, they detect fraud in the process if any they give information on places where there were violence, manipulation of the process, where there were non-appearance. Further findings showed that some of the challenges observers encounter were the issue of process of accreditation as it was stressful and cumbersome, insecurity of election observers across some states in Nigeria as some of the election observers were harassed and threatened by political thugs, security officers barred some of the election observers from playing their role in the coverage and monitoring of elections. Also, findings showed that the presence of election observers influence the credibility of the 2015 and 2019 general election. It was recommeded that government should put in place adequate security for members of election observers during election and they should also put in place better ways of screening election observers so as to avoid unnecessary stress and ensure prompt screening of election observer teams.
Keywords: Monitoring, Observation, Electoral Commission, General Elections
Word Count: 297
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Kate Turabian