Democracy is a system of Democracy is a system of government that is practised in the contemporary world today. It is a government of the people, by the people and for the people.
In this system of government, decision making is either done by the people directly or a representative is chosen to reproduce the interest of every members in the Society. In the modern world, people are elected by the electorates to represent their interest due to the fact that there are many citizens in the country and it is difficult for everybody to participate in the affairs of the state and that is why election are conducted periodically so as to enable electorates vote for candidate that can represent their interest well.
This shows that election is a very pertinent principle of democracy. But in our present democracy the practice of election has been turned upside down.
Election is a situation where by individual chose candidate of their choice to occupy an elective or political position for a fixed period of time.
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Election in our country Nigeria is mared by mal-practise ranging from election rigging, vote buying, snatching of ballot box, intimidation of electorates.
This act makes people to shy away from the politics of Nigeria. Political thugs are used to destroy ballot boxes and even the secret balloting claimed to be practised in democracy is no longer obtainable as political thugs and party agent monitor the party an individual voted for before giving them money. Even those contesting in an election attack each other by sending thugs to assassinate their opposition and this act violates the Electoral principle.
Even the Electoral Body responsible for conducting election are not independent because the ruling party tell them what to do and not to do as there are the ones responsible for appointing the head of the Electoral Body. The Electoral body are always pressurized to announce election result in favour of the party in Power and in return money is disbursed to them for job well done and even if the outcome of the election is challenged in the court the judgement is delivered in favour of the ruling party and this makes government of the day to be seen as an authority forced on the people to control their affairs there by making political apathy to be the order of the day.
To this end, they is every need for an Electoral malpractice court that will ensure for the punishment of those who defile the Electoral principle and also the Electoral Body should be made strong and independent of the executive control, through this free and fair election can be ascertained.
