The effect of the smart card reader on electoral malpractices in Nigeria

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2019 in the subject Politics - Region: Africa, Obafemi Awolowo University, language: English, abstract: The following questions will guide this study: In what ways did the smart card reader impact the 2016 gubernatorial election in Ondo State? What were the challenges and limitations of the smart card reader? What are the mechanisms that can be put in place to check the challenges that affects smart card readers during elections in Nigeria? Election has been the means of selecting political leaders in developed as well as developing nations across the world. However, the contestation for political offices in Nigeria is often characterized by different challenges which range from controversial primaries (internal democracy); the role of godfathers who select their preferred candidates to do their bidding; electoral violence et cetera. These among other factors were instrumental to the adoption of card readers in the conduct of elections in the country aimed at advancing credible electioneering process. However, despite the adoption of card readers in the conduct of elections in the country since the fourth republic, electoral process have often been plagued by myriads of challenges like rigging, buying of votes, violence, malfunctioning of the card readers, and poorly trained INEC ad hoc staff. Several scholars have examined the use of card reader and its effects on electoral malpractices in Nigeria especially during the 2015 general elections. However, it was observed that not many literatures have appraised the impact of card reader and its effects on electoral process in the 2016 gubernatorial elections in Ondo State. This is the gap in literature this study has identified and therefore seeks to fill. Electoral process is no doubt an institutionalized procedure for the choosing of political Office Holders by qualified adults' members of a society. Hence, electioneering process exists to· provide the electorate the opportunity and right to choose their representative and maintain contact with them. Therefore, for an electoral system to be democratic, it should allow the electorate the leverage to make real and meaningful choice devoid of coercion or intimidation. Nigeria's political history have been challenged with the gory tales of electoral malpractices; a feat that has negatively affected the nation's polity.