...1 Violence Free Elections: Perspectives on the Peace Initiatives on the 2015 General Elections in Nigeria Warisu O. Alli Institute of Peace and Conflict Resolution Plot 496 Abogo Largema Street, CBD, Abuja Email: alliwo@yahoo.co.uk; Mobile: 08035991377 ABSTRACT Elections are essential in a democracy and are fundamental features of representative democracy.. When free, fair and transparent, they confer credibility and legitimacy on the outcome. However, Nigeria's electoral history has always been marred by various levels of violence with grave implications for the polity. Since return of democratic rule in 1999, Nigeria, has conducted elections in 2003, 2007, 2011 but with an ever increasing rise in electoral violence. The April 2011 elections, which benefitted from the electoral reform efforts of President Yar ‗Adua, and was considered the most credible since the return to democracy also turned out to be the most violent as the country witnessed an orgy of bloodshed after the elections. The 2015 elections were to be held against the background of a prediction about the disintegration of Nigeria against the background of several socio-economic, political and security challenges, including insurgency in the nation‘s North East. The emergence of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as a formidable opposition to the ruling People Democratic Party (PDP) fifteen year rule also added more tension to the charged atmosphere of the elections. The Peace Initiatives which started immediately...
Words: 9153 - Pages: 37
...Jeff Chandler Political Science 1 Mon/Wed 12:40-2:00 Assignment #3: Elections & Campaign Funding The articles I chose focus on congressional elections and campaign funding. The Supreme Court recently lifted the cap on amount donors can contribute in a congressional election. The courts decision threw out the $74,600 limit for donations to political parties and the $48,600 limit for House or Senate candidates in a two-year campaign season. However donors still cannot contribute more than $5,200 to a single candidate per election, but without the overall caps, those who can afford it can have an enormous influence by donating to many candidates. Donors could contribute up to 3.6 million dollars by giving to all 435 House candidates and the 33 candidates for Senate seats up for election, as well as each party’s national committees. Under current election laws the parties could redistribute the money, possibly even using the entire amount to benefit one candidate. Critic believe this could lead to a consolidation of political power to a wealthy few, as well as the party’s leaders, resulting in improper influence on Capitol Hill (L.A. Times). We already know that party officials and candidates will solicit these large contributions from wealthy donors because such contributions will help increase the party’s power, as well as candidates standing among his colleagues. Fund raising to meet the high costs of campaigning is the most important hurdle for any candidate for...
Words: 744 - Pages: 3
...One month, until the election booth opens. “Yippee” my friend Cass says. I don’t know why she’s thrilled, it’s only the election. Just like voting for a class captain except now we are 18, not in school and we have to vote for a captain of our country. The mention of the word country, just adds a bit more importance to everything, doesn’t it? Ten minutes of my life is going to be gone just to go and vote. A whole months worth of ads used up for elections, when they can be accounted for six episodes of Gossip Girl. Gone. My life right now is sky rocketing. In two more weeks there will be no more campaigns. Cass can’t get a hold of herself; I think she is going to explode. I think I am going to explode. Mum is starting to take interest and is asking me for election advice. Seriously mum, what am I suppose to know? “You should be interested in the elections, first time you get to vote. Aren’t you excited? It’s your future here we are all voting for, use your power, use your rights, make it count! Don’t you know how significant voting is; it’s so special that it doesn’t come every single year.” Blah blah blah, mum is going through her whole sixties, feminist, power phase, saying “voting is great and democracy is awesome.” Democracy is only majority rules, and voting is just another word to accompany it. Rights and power, if we all had rights and power why didn’t the blacks utilise their power to get their land back they had the rights and numbers to do so. However it doesn’t just...
Words: 807 - Pages: 4
...An election is a formal decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual to hold public office.[1] Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operated since the 17th century.[1] Elections may fill offices in the legislature, sometimes in the executive and judiciary, and for regional and local government. This process is also used in many other private and business organizations, from clubs to voluntary associations and corporations....Election is the real participation of people in democracy, where the people participate in direct way to form in government. Election is not only a process where people go on cast his vote, though it is a festival of democracy system. Democracy depend on people, people depend on election there they elected his representative to parliament or government. Government needs to go with election for taking fresh memorandum through people of his country. Election shows the country is rule by the people of that country. Whenever government need for a fresh new term of his government they will go for election. Election is a power of government also a power of people. The dominance of the Indian National Congress was broken for the first time in 1977, with the defeat of the party led by Indira Gandhi, by an unlikely coalition of all the major other parties, which protested against the imposition of a controversial Emergency from 1975–1977. A similar coalition, led by VP Singh was swept to power...
Words: 2094 - Pages: 9
...It’s Election Day! (Does Anyone Really Care?) John F. Kennedy once said that “The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.” When I ran across this quote I realized that today is Election Day in Massachusetts and many local voters were heading to the polls to select new leadership. Now it’s a known fact that local voter turnout is never very high. We see more middle-aged citizens and the elderly turning out for these elections which, based on the information presented in our discussion question, is about 20-30% of registered voters. But how does this tie-in to the quote. I am in agreement that a low voter turn-out is not necessarily a bad thing. These voters usually represent those voters who are knowledgeable about the issues at hand and want to see the best person for the job get elected. But does this continuous process yield a better outcome as a whole. The populace needs to be educated about the issues and understand what they are voting for. If people tend to vote on blind faith or, worse, emotion, it is an ignorant and potentially costly move for us all. In order for communities as a whole to bind together and elect the right people for the job, they must take the time and energy to get involved and to become educated on the important issues that are affecting them and their families. The question was asked in our discussion as to what kind of a program we could devise to not only increase voter turn-out but to educate the...
Words: 1043 - Pages: 5
...One of the most significant and impactful presidential elections in the United States was the Election of 1832. Lynn Hudson Parsons’s book The Birth of Modern Politics: Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, and the Election of 1828 details this election as well as its place in shaping modern politics through the examination of the two major candidates of the election: John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson. Parsons claims that not only did this election outline many of the political trends of elections that are still present to this day, such as the creation and greater utilization of nominating conventions, meetings, pamphlets, parades, speeches, political campaigning, as well as the use of propaganda, but that everything that transpired in the...
Words: 1557 - Pages: 7
...The Election Process 2010 General Election The last UK General Election was held on 6th May 2010. No single party won an overall majority of the 650 House of Commons seats. The conservatives won 305 seats, representing 10.7 million votes (36%). Labour won 258 seats, representing 8.6 million votes (29%). The Liberal Democrats won 57 seats, representing 6.8 million votes (23%). The Liberal Democrats and The Conservatives joined together to make a coalition because no one had enough votes to win on their own. The Process of a General Election Fixed Term Parliament Act was passed on 15 September 2011, meaning that General Elections are now held on the first Thursday in May every five years. The date of the next general election is set at 7 May 2015. There are two situations in which a General Election will be called earlier than at five intervals. (i) A motion of no confidence has been passed by the House of Commons against the Government and 14 days has passed without the House of Commons passing a confidence motion in any newly formed Government; or (ii) A motion for a General Election is agreed by two thirds of the total number of MP’s in the House of Commons (currently 434 out of 650). You don’t do that unless you’re confident you can win that election. Once the Government has decided to call a General Election (either because the five years is up or an early election is needed), the Prime Minister will ask the Monarch to dissolve Parliament by Royal Proclamation...
Words: 1002 - Pages: 5
...GENERAL ELECTION In a democratic country, government must take a verdict of the people from time to time. When it contemplates a change in policy, it becomes necessary to know what people think about it. Also it may be necessary to consult the people as a routine measure, after intervals, fixed by the statue. For this purpose elections are held all over the country and people are asked to cast their votes for or against certain measure. The existing popular assemblies are dissolved, and they are re-constituted on the basis of a general election. Usually people vote on party lines. Where there is only one party, as it was in the former Soviet Union and in the present-day communist China, votes are cast for or against the party candidate. Policies are decided or the basis of such voting. In our country, a general election is held normally after five years. But if a Prime Minister contemplate a new line of policy, he or she may seek mandate from the people even before the expiry of five years, as Mrs. Indira Gandhi did in 1971. For the purpose of elections, the country is divided into a large number of constituencies. These constituencies are asked to elect their representatives. Each party puts its own candidates for election. When the candidates have submitted their nomination papers by the prescribed date, after the scrutiny of nomination papers are finished, dates for election are announced and the electoral machinery begins to function. The candidates...
Words: 813 - Pages: 4
...Presidential Elections Andres B. Ronquillo HIST122A 15 July 2012 Our nation’s first presidential election took place in 1789, when Americans voted for electors and they voted for Washington, who ran and won without much opposition. However, it is 2012 and it has been over 200 years since that first election took place. Many things have changed since then, including the election process its self. I am not going to get into much detail about the process, Instead I will focus this paper on the changes we, as a nation, went through. I will focus more on the issues that have changed us the most, as a nation. Through the course of this class I have learned that some of the issues we have had in the past were based on race, gender, illiteracy and even poverty. I will touch on some of these issues but only briefly. Instead I will talk about present day presidential elections and how even though we have changed a lot of the major issues that affected the election process, there are still many issues that still affect us today. I will mainly focus on one of these issues. The Problems I will discuss will be focused around the military vote, mainly because I am in the Army and have friends/ family that are in the military. The problems with the absentee ballot system, are part of the issues I will discuss. It will be four years, in November, since President Obama was elected as our nation’s 44th President. Just like in 2008 and every other Presidential election year, we the people...
Words: 1433 - Pages: 6
...Election Process Voting system There are 4 main voting systems: First-past-the-post system Supplementary vote system Additional vote system Single Transferable vote system First-past-the-post system This system is used in elections for the House of Commons, there is only one seat per each constituency e.g. East Sussex, West Sussex, Kent. People can vote for one candidate of their choice. They can’t vote for more than one candidate or more than once. Therefore, the candidate who gets the most votes is being elected. Main advantages of this system are that it produces more stable governments with little need for coalition and there is close tie between MP and constituency. Main Disadvantages of this voting system are that proportion of candidates for a party elected is not equal to votes cast. Proportional Representation (PR) system Opponents of First-past-the-post system claim that Promotional Representational system is fairer. The main advantage of this system is to ensure that the number of candidates elected for a party is in proportion to the number of votes cast. This system gives a better chance to smaller parties. The main disadvantage of this system is that it may lead to weak government as coalitions are often created and it increases possibility of huge arguments forming in the government, which then might cause government to fall and then another election will be needed. Supplementary vote (SV) system. This system is used for elections...
Words: 786 - Pages: 4
...The results of this election made me disappointed and angry, because I wanted Romney to win. It seems like he stands for the same values that I stand for. I also wanted him to win because we got involved in his campaign as a school because we believe God has a plan for every life, and that abortion is wrong. Jeremiah 1:5 says “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations”. We believe that God created marriage for one man and one woman. Genesis 2:24 says “Man shall leave his mother and father, and shall be joined with his wife, and they will become one flesh.” In Genesis 1:28, God tells them to have children and fill the earth. Now, I don’t know what kind of science they’re studying, but I’m pretty sure Adam and Steve or Addie and Eve are not going to get the job done. The truth about the elections is, the votes are in, Obama won, and gay marriage has now been approved. It is what it is, and 1Timothy 2:1-2 says we should pray for those in authority so we can have peaceful lives. God’s called us to be salt (Matthew 5:13) and light (Matthew 5:14-16) in this world which means I need to have a good attitude because unbelievers watch how we walk. The truth is, people all over the United States have been praying for over a month and we need to accept God’s answer. The first lie that comes to my mind is that God failed us. Deuteronomy 31:6 says to be happy and not afraid because God goes with us...
Words: 452 - Pages: 2
...As we near the end of what has Beene very interesting election season I think that most Americans would agree that the two candidates that they have to choose from are both sub par to say the least. The Article, An Election Unworthy of America, by Jim Geraghty takes a look at how bad of an election this has really been. To start,Geraghty openly states that both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are both untrustworthy, vindictive, and overall bad candidates. Next, the article moves on to the terrible things that we have seen throughout the course of the election. Geraghty describes the terrible violence and hatred that as driven this years presidential race. there has been countless death threats too both candidates and their employees as well...
Words: 396 - Pages: 2
...“Reckless and wasteful, he is wrong for America.” “She is the leader who will move us forward!” “He’s the only true candidate standing for the middle class.” “America deserves better than him!” These are the types of countless advertisements that are thrown at Americans from every source during elections. It’s one of the reasons why political elections are complex and often overwhelming. Whether it is from the TV, radio, news articles, or the internet, it’s inescapable. Although their methods can differ, the different influencers of elections have a common goal of fighting for the citizens’ votes. The three main sources that impact American political behavior are Super PACs, interest groups, and the media. Although relatively new, Super PACs are probably what come to mind when thinking of influencers in elections. Known as independent political committees, Super PACs emerged after the Supreme Court Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision in 2010 that granted...
Words: 797 - Pages: 4
...Publicity and Electioneering Activities It is important that a candidate becomes well known in the area they are hoping to represent and to this end they will often undertake a great deal of publicity work, such as leafleting houses, displaying posters, and canvassing door-to-door for votes. Publicity costs money and so the more wealthy parties will have an advantage. In addition, during a general election you will often see party political broadcasts for the main parties outlining their policies. This is because they can afford publicity campaigns that include film-making. Voting Processes Used As technology has evolved there have become more ways to cast a vote than ever before. Most people are familiar with the traditional way of going to a polling office (usually a church, school or community centre that has changed purposes for the day) to go into a voting booth and place a cross on a ballot slip next to the name of the candidate you wish to vote for. First Past the Post (FPTP) The British electoral system is based on the FPTP system. This system is very clear-cut and definitive, the candidate with the highest number of votes in a constituency wins. In order to vote in a FPTP system you simply mark a cross (X) next to the name of the candidate you are choosing. Alternative Vote (AV) Voters must rank the candidates on the ballot paper in order of preference. If a candidate receives 50 per cent or more of first preferences then they are elected. If not, then the candidate...
Words: 1651 - Pages: 7
...Proceedings of elections in the USA Organizing en conducting an USA election is a work for thousands of administrators. This includes categorizing and validating the results. The proceedings consists of crucial and complicated tasks, like arranging the elections on the right date, verifying the eligibility of candidates, Registering eligible voters and arranging voter rolls, opt voting equipment, creating ballots and setting up a considerable amount of workers for the election day. One important function of the administrators is making sure that everyone who is qualified to vote is included in the list. People who haven’t voted in recent past still appear on the list, instead of being eliminated. People who appear on the polls and are not included in the list are given a temporary vote. Whether or not they are qualified is checked before their votes are counted. Start of voting procedure The voting procedure in de United states consists of two steps. First of all you are ought to register, the registration system is intended to terminate fraud. The USA doesn’t obtain a list of qualified voters. This is why it’s important to register. Through registering a voter is qualified. Voters register at their place of residence. In case they move house, they should register again. Every state has its own procedure of registering. Formerly the system was used to discourage citizens who wanted to become a participant, these were mainly African Americans. Lately, registration systems...
Words: 421 - Pages: 2
