Tanko Shawulu Paul, PhD

Micah Sekyen Pwaspo

&

Lemon Blessing Ebenezer

Abstract
Nigeria’s political history reveals a longstanding trend of electoral fraud which has escalated so
much so that violence is employed to ensure the smooth progress and process of rigging. Since the
first election in 1922, there has been an uninterrupted case of rigging with subsequent ones being
more organized that the previous ones. Between independence in 1960 and 1991, Nigeria produced
only two elected governments both later overthrown in military coups. After nearly 30 years, in
1999, Nigeria made a transition to civilian rule. This paper is titled e violence and democratic
process in Nigeria. The research used secondary data. Elites theory of democracy was adopted
because it explains the causes of electoral violence which is rooted on elites. The found out that
electoral violence was caused by elites who are desperately hungry for power. The research also
found out that the offenders of electoral violence are not been punish by the authority concern.
Therefore, the research recommends establishment of electoral offence tribunal to deal with such
cases, The research also recommend proper education of electorate on the danger of electoral
violence in our society.

Introduction
Election is generally conceived as a means of a peaceful change of leadership in societies. Election
violence is any act of violence perpetrated in the course of political activities including pre, during
and post election periods; and may include any of the following acts: thuggery, use of force to
disrupt political meetings and voting at polling stations, or the use of dangerous weapons to
intimidate voters and other electoral actors, or to cause bodily harm or…

Leave a Comment