...ELECTIONS, ELECTORAL REFORMS AND POST- ELECTION VIOLENCE: PROBLEMS AND WAY FORWARD BY IRABOR PETER ODION DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL STUDIES COLLEGE OF EDUCATION, IGUEBEN, EDO STATE 07037830536. p24real2000@yahoo.com ABSTRACT In the contemporary world of today, elections have become the most accepted means of changing the government. Although history has shown that it is usually difficult to hold elections that are free and fair. But the importance of a good electoral act cannot be underestimated especially in a developing country like Nigeria where elections were reported to be marred by irregularities by foreign and local observers. It is on this basis that this paper critically observed, even with the electoral reforms carried out, the reasons why there were violence after the 2011 general election and recommended that adopting the basic part of the reforms, devolvement of power at the centre are other plausible way forward to true and sustainable democratic system in Nigeria. INTRODUCTION The electoral system of any given country plays a fundamental role in sustaining and moulding the political behaviour of its citizens (Okolo,2000). The way and manner election is conducted in a country goes a long way to determine the level of poltical culture, political participation and good governance in...
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...109819851 Course: BCOM2 Assess the merits of the political reform process underway in the UK. You should examine the proposed changes under a number of headings including but not limited to the electoral system, the House of Lords, and open government. You must discuss why potential reform should take place, its observable implications and consider comparative examples where the changes already exist. Elections are an integral figure in any countries political system. Elections are also important symbolically in most competitive party systems, legitimizing a country’s political system in the eyes of it citizens. They offer a means of participating in politics, elections also give a feeling that they are exercising choices about who should represent them in the national parliament and about who should form the next government. One common debate of which Party System is best to run a Nation has long been argued by politicians and also which is the electoral system that governs the conduct of elections. With elections, change or reform can always be seen and in one case the United Kingdom is a perfect example, in May 2010 the first united coalition in the Britain since World War 2 and now currently there is an on-going debate for political reform in the UK regarding the current electoral system. Would new government bring closure to the drama of reform in The House of Lords? Or would the unelected house continue to cause up-set? The conservatives aimed to bring more transparency...
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...Of all the areas of electoral reform which are debated at present, the most hotly contested area is perhaps the electoral college. Indeed, there are ways that the current electoral college of the United States of America can be improved through reform, but how? Article 2, Section 1 of the United States Constitution states: “Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled to Congress;” (“The Constitution”). Because this section commands broadly that the “State” shall elect the electors of the president, this part of the Constitution, since the ratification of the Constitution, has been misconstrued...
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...appreciation that only credible election can consolidate and sustain the country’s nascent democracy, over the years, Nigeria continues to witness with growing disappointments and apprehension inability to conduct peaceful, free and fair, open elections whose results are widely accepted and respected across the country (Ekweremadu, 2011). All the elections that have ever been conducted in Nigeria since independence have generated increasingly bitter controversies and grievances on a national scale because of the twin problems of mass violence and fraud that have become central elements of the history of elections and of the electoral process in the country (Gberie, 2011). Despite the marked improvement in the conduct of the 2011 elections, the process was not free from malpractices and violence (National Democratic Institute, 2012). Thus over the years, electoral processes in the history of Nigeria’s democratic governance have continued to be marred by extraordinary display of rigging, dodgy, “do or die” affair, ballot snatching at gun points, violence and acrimony, thuggery, boycotts, threats and criminal manipulations of voters' list, brazen falsification of election results, the use of security agencies against political opponents and the intimidation of voters (Bekoe, 2011). Despite the vital place that election holds in democracy in this 21st century, the organization of free and fair elections remains a real challenge for new democracies in West Africa, particularly Nigeria...
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...Electoral reform is change in electoral systems to improve how public desires are expressed in election results. That can include reforms of: * Voting systems, such as proportional representation, a two-round system (runoff voting), instant-runoff voting, Instant Round Robin Voting called Condorcet Voting, approval voting, citizen initiatives and referendums and recall elections. * Vote-counting procedures * Rules about political parties, typically changes to election laws * Eligibility to vote * How candidates and political parties are able to stand (nomination rules) and how they are able to get their names onto ballots (ballot access) * Electoral constituencies and election district borders * Ballot design and voting equipment * Scrutineering (election monitoring by candidates, political parties, etc.) * Safety of voters and election workers * Measures against bribery, coercion, and conflicts of interest * Financing of candidates' and referendum campaigns * Factors which affect the rate of voter participation (voter turnout) Electoral Reforms in India: Issues and Challenges before theElection Commission INTRODUCTION “An election is a moral horror, as bad as a battle except for the blood; a mud bath for every soul concerned in it.” - George Bernard Shaw Electoral reform means introducing fair electoral systems for conducting fair elections. It alsoincludes recuperation of the existing systems to enhance and increase...
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...benefits called the Electoral College. The process of the electoral college is complex and has many components to how it works. The only power the people have over the electoral college is the ability to appoint our electors through the popular vote; however, the electors have free reign, without needing consent from the people, over who is in charge every four years. Within the Electoral College is a rich history, pros and cons, how electors are chosen, how the difference of the popular vote cause Serbian states to be swing states, and why past elections have brought up questions about if the electoral college should be amended. The original philosophy behind the electoral college is what has caused the rich history of the electoral college. Everything began in 1789 when the idea of the electoral college came to elect our very first president. The Electoral College is a system of selecting the next president by electors who vote based on the popular vote of America (U.S. Electoral College). Alexander Hamilton created the original form of the...
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...To reform the U.S. electoral system, the government should eliminate the Electoral College and allow the citizens to choose the president in order to make the system more democratic. The function of the Electoral College is described in Article II Section 2 of the constitution, the constitution “does not provide that all US citizens may vote for presidential electors. Rather, it provides only that the electors shall be appointed as the state legislatures direct. Once a state determines that electors shall be chosen by popular vote it has wide latitude to determine eligibility to vote” (Hardaway 106). The electors are chosen based on the amount of House of Representatives and Senators each state has in Congress; the few hundred electors controls the United States vote (ABC News). This system is not democratic because the people are not the direct electors of the President, elite men and women of both political parties are in charge of choosing. If the system is kept that way, there is no real reason in having the eligible voters in voting because at the end of the day, their vote does not count causing various effects in the elections such as low voter turnout and lower voter efficacy.Citizens of the United States are discouraged to vote because they feel that their vote does not count since their government has established a group of people to “double-check” their preferred candidate. Why hasn’t the government abolish the Electoral College if more than 54% of the United States...
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...elected by one voter to represent this borough in parliament. There was no other candidate or opposition.” I think that this should not have happened in 1820 because they were being sexist. For me I find this a terrible thing like racism. The 1832 Reform Act (a.k.a Great Reform Act). This reform act was an act of parliament. Most argue that it did not lead to lots if quick changes it got people more convinced that they have the right to vote as well not just men who were rich. After this there were two more reform acts. Chartism was a working-class movement for political reform in Britain between 1838 and 1848 which took its name from the People's Charter of 1838. The Chartists made ‘The Peoples Charter’ it consisted of six basic reforms which were: Every man over 21 who is not a criminal or insane should be allowed to vote, voting should be done in secret, candidates should not need to be rich or own property to become a Member of Parliament, all Members of Parliament should be paid for doing their job, all electoral areas should represent the same number of people, elections should be held annually. The 1867 Reform Act was the second major attempt to reform Britain’s electoral process – the first being the 1832 Reform Act. The 1867 Reform Act is properly titled the Representation of the...
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...Labour and Constitutional Reform ✓ Labour’s Reforms ✓ The Changing Constitution ✓ Party Views and Manifestoes ✓ Assessment and Evaluation ✓ Evidence 1. Labour’s Reforms o The constitutional reforms initiated by the Labour Government elected in 1997 together promise to transform the institutional structure of the United Kingdom. ▪ The Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly are the most tangible signs of this transformation but other constitutional reforms are either in being or well under way …… ▪ including the Human Rights Act of 1998 (incorporating the European Convention on Human Rights), ▪ a directly-elected mayor and assembly for London, ▪ a reformed House of Lords ▪ and Freedom of Information legislation. ▪ Although reform of the electoral system for Westminster now seems a somewhat distant prospect, the 1999 elections to the Welsh Assembly, to the Scottish Parliament and to the European Parliament were all conducted using electoral systems very different from the traditional first-past-the-post method. ▪ Referendums have been widely used, and more promised o Lecture by the Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine of Lairg, to the Constitution Unit, Westminster. 8 December 1998 o No other Government this century has embarked upon so significant or wide-ranging a programme of constitutional reform as the New Labour Government...
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... This refers to situations in which a political party is divided over a political issue, and the lack of consensus jeopardises the stability of the party. Failure to reach a consensus may cause revolts amongst back-bencher's, rendering party whips redundant. This can seriously danger the electoral prospects of the party, as publicly divided parties causes the electorate to lose confidence. Referendums therefore provide a democratic form of dispute resolution. A good example of this being exercised in practice is the 1975 referendum over the UK's membership to the European Union. This prevented the collapse of Harold Wilson's Labour Government. Secondly, referendums are used when Government is confronted with extremely controversial political issues. Governments use referendums in these circumstances because deciding the issue themselves may sometimes lead to serious public discontent, once again jeopardising the public popularity and electoral prospects of the party. Membership to the EU is an example of such an issue. An even more obvious example is the Good Friday Agreement referendum. Thirdly, referendums are used to further democracy, and in particular, direct democracy. Political parties in modern, liberal-minded countries all have democracy as a central theme of their electoral manifesto. The 1997 Labour Party manifesto is a key example, as it explicitly expressed a commitment towards referendums. In Abraham Lincoln's definition of democracy, government 'by and with...
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...with the creation of the United States Constitution. This Constitution eventually gave everyone a voice in their government albeit it through a representative elector at the national level and continues to make strides today in the political landscape through its evolution as a document. However, our Constitution is far from complete. Discrepancies between contemporary times and those in which our founders live in are cause for the changes and redress of our Constitution as to better fit it to the standard of the times. One such dated concept is the electorate system of the electoral college. Though necessary at one point, our current time of information sharing has rendered it ineffective in its task and I would argue, best replaced through the administration of a test to the voters in order to ascertain their...
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...The Electoral College Andie Downs ENG 105 Research Paper Final Every four years on the Tuesday after the first Monday of November, the election for the next President and Vice President of the United States takes place. Although thousands of individuals cast their vote for their candidate of choice on this day, it is really Electors that they are voting for. The electors that are selected will go on to choose the next President and Vice President of the United States. For example, the candidate that could win the popular vote of a state is not guaranteed because election is actually decided by the group of electors, called the Electoral College. The U.S Electoral College is the division of the government that selects the President and Vice President of the United States. It consists of 538 electors, where the amount from each state equals its number of members in its congressional delegation. In two states, Nebraska and Maine, the candidate is determined by majority vote and the winner of the popular vote receives 2 electoral votes (“What is the Electoral College?”). Allotting a number of votes to each state in this way is inaccurate and doesn’t properly represent the vastly larger or smaller states. Although the use of an Electoral College during a presidential election is considered a key element to democracy, its application to the process makes it unrepresentative of the voters and elections should instead be based on the popular vote of the people. When the constitution...
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...general, CBI is defined as the freedom to conduct monetary policy without direct government or political interference (Walsh, 2005). It is conventionally believed that CBI is an effective means of inflation management. A plethora of empirical and theoretical studies have shown that CBI reforms helped reduced inflationary bias due to time-inconsistency problems inherent in monetary policy and made the inflationary rule credible. This consensus has consequently led to a significant number of governments to initiate CBI reforms granting their respective central banks more independence in an effort to insulate monetary policy from political opportunism. Since New Zealand granted its central bank independence through the implementation of Reserve Bank Act of 1989, several countries have followed suit. Dauntfeld et. al. (2008) identified 89 countries that implemented CBI reforms for the period 1980-2005. While the trend towards CBI has increased, there still exists a significant variation in the degree of independence granted central banks across governments. From a benevolent social policy makers’ perspective, this variation is somewhat of a puzzle. As Bernhard et. al (2002) postulated, if CBI reforms provided an optimal solution to time inconsistency problem, it is rational to expect that governments should grant central banks complete independence. These variations then suggest that the decision to...
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...One of the main barriers minor parties face is debate rules. Debates have formed a large part of the United States electoral process since the 1990s but for the majority of states parties must have cleared 15% in pre-debate opinion polls to take part. The debates are crucial for party publicity and grassroots support but are only traditionally open to the presidential and vice presidential candidates of the two main parties. To take part in the debates candidates also have to be on enough ballot cards in enough states to make it possible to win an electoral college majority, for independent third parties this is often difficult as it usually requires self-funding for registration fee's and the like, such as Ross Perot in 1996 who was a multi-millionaire and able to fund his own campaign and therefore representation on ballots in every state. Since it is often due to the publicity of the debates that parties gain gain funding these limitations tend to put minor parties on the back-foot even before the major campaign starts as they have limited resources and means of publicity to gain enough finance and support for both the ballot registration fees and the 15% in the election polls. The second limitation on third parties is the winner-takes-all lack of proportional representation in the electoral college. Proportional representation is virtually non-existent in the federal system and is rarely even found in the states. This complete lack of minor party representation means that...
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...Course Soc Of Develop Countries Test Week 5 Midterm Exam Part 2 Status Completed Attempt Score 100 out of 100 points Instructions This exam consists of 20 multiple choice questions and covers the material in Units 1 through 4 of the Webtext. There are five questions from each unit. • Question 1 5 out of 5 points According to World Bank standards, a country can be considered "developing" if which of the following is true? Answer Selected Answer: The country has a low- or middle-income economy. Correct Answer: The country has a low- or middle-income economy. • Question 2 5 out of 5 points As of 2001, what region of the world contained the highest number of the world’s extremely and moderately poor citizens? Answer Selected Answer: South Asia Correct Answer: South Asia • Question 3 5 out of 5 points According to the various graphs comparing poverty in 1981 to poverty in 2001, which of the following is true? Answer Selected Answer: The number of people in East Asia living in extreme poverty fell, while the number living in moderate poverty grew. Correct Answer: The number of people in East Asia living in extreme poverty fell, while the number living in moderate poverty grew. • Question 4 5 out of 5 points Why there is so little formal work in Peña Blanca? Answer Selected Answer: It is a poor, rural town whose economy and infrastructure are not strong enough to...
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