...THE INTRODUCTION OF SMART CARD READERS AND THE 2015 GENERAL ELECTIONS IN NIGERIA Alli usman THE INTRODUCTION OF SMART CARD READERS AND THE 2015 GENERAL ELECTIONS IN NIGERIA: An Annotated Bibliography ACE Project (n.d.) Elections and Technology. Available at http://aceproject.org/ace-en/topics/et/et10. Accessed 16, June, 2015 ACE Project is high-level web-based proprietary project management software developed by a Canadian company Web systems Inc. based in Quebec City, Canada. The introduction of information and communications technologies (ICT) into the electoral process is generating both interest and concern among voters, as well as practitioners across the globe. Most electoral management bodies (EMBs) around the world use new technologies with the aim of improving the electoral process. These technologies range from the use of basic office automation tools such as word processing and spreadsheets to more sophisticated data processing tools, such as data base management systems, optical scanning and geographic information systems. Alvarez, R. M. and Hall, T. E. (2008) Electronic Elections: The Perils and Promises of Digital Democracy. Princeton; Princeton University Press Elections by nature are fraught with risk. Michael Alvarez and Thad Hall fully examine the range of past methods and the new technologies that have been created to try to minimize risk and accurately reflect...
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...Why Did Labour win the 1997 Election? The 1997 General election saw the Labour party clinch a landslide victory with a 93 seat majority, whilst winning 43.2% of the popular vote. Their success in this election was won due to many different factors. Their new image and transformation coupled with impressive campaigning proved to be a major factor. But the damage to the Conservative party during Major’s years in power meant the Conservatives weren’t even a viable competitor, thus leading to Labour’s victory. But we can’t neglect the role third parties played in ensuring a Labour victory. Blair was representing a generation of new labour that looked to move over to the centre of the political spectrum. This centralisation had removed the traditional extreme socialist ideology associated with Labour. Their exclusion of extreme left wing elements, such as the Militant Tendency, was an example of them moving away from such ideology. In addition, Blair communication skills should be highly credited. He was very articulate and skilful. He gave an image of a modern and young labour which had seemed to gain large support from women and younger voters. Also, the use of spin doctors and media support had boosted their public image. Alistair Campbell, editor of the Today newspaper was an example of support from they had from the media. This all contributed to create a new image for Labour that public enjoyed, and voted for. But Blair not only created a new image for Labour, he had transformed...
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...the general election was held after the allied victory in Europe over the axis forces, and its result came as a result to Britain’s wartime leader Winston Churchill. Churchill’s campaign was based around his wartime leadership, and the fact that he lead the country to victory. Instead of their conservative wartime leader, the british public voted for labour and its leader, Clement Attlee. Whilst both Churchill and Attlee were household names in the UK, Attlee was relatively unknown outside of the country, which is why the result of the election came as such a shock to many people around the world, who expected the british public to unanimously side with the man that had lead them to victory in the wartime period. The 1945 election was held on the July 5th with the election campaigns beginning in ernest a month prior. However due to many british servicemen stationed around the world still involved in the war against japan which would not be brought to a close until August 9th. This meant that the results of the election were not known until July 26th, when it was announced that labour had secured 47% of the votes, and 61% of the seats in the house of commons. Towards the end of the war in Europe, the Labour party withdrew from the wartime government in peroration for the forthcoming election to take place in July. Prior to the election, King George VI dissolved the parliament that had stood for 10 years without an election, to make way for the forthcoming july election, that...
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...Assess the Arguments for Retaining the First Past the Post System for General Elections The first past the post electoral system is the procedure in which electorates in their individual constituency vote for a party, the winners are generally the party that receives the most votes as well as reaches a fifty per cent majority of the votes; the remainder of the votes are discarded. The first past the post system (FPTP) is used in various countries; prime examples are the general elections in the UK and the presidential elections in USA. Although the first past the post system has received general acceptance, there has been many debates to how democratic the process is and if it should be replaced with a more “fairer” and “democratic” electoral system… Firstly, the main issue within the first past the post system is the democratic persona it creates; due to the fact that only the votes of the successful party are counted and the remaining votes (no matter how close) are discounted therefore making it based on a “winner takes all” system and in effect, undermining the remaining candidates as well as electorates whose votes are discounted. This can be seen evidently in the 2010 general elections as although labour had won 258 seats, conservatives had won 307 seats therefore stating conservatives had received more votes than all other parties and so their votes are the only one that count whilst all other votes are redundant. Systems involving proportional representation, such...
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...first past the post electoral system is the procedure in which electorates in their individual constituency vote for a party, the winners are generally the party that receives the most votes as well as reaches a fifty per cent majority of the votes; the remainder of the votes are discarded. The first past the post system (FPTP) is used in various countries; prime examples are the general elections in the UK and the presidential elections in USA. Although the first past the post system has received general acceptance, there has been many debates to how democratic the process is and if it should be replaced with a more “fairer” and “democratic” electoral system… Firstly, the main issue within the first past the post system is the democratic persona it creates; due to the fact that only the votes of the successful party are counted and the remaining votes (no matter how close) are discounted therefore making it based on a “winner takes all” system and in effect, undermining the remaining candidates as well as electorates whose votes are discounted. This can be seen evidently in the 2010 general elections as although labour had won 258 seats, conservatives had won 307 seats therefore stating conservatives had received more votes than all other parties and so their votes are the only one that count whilst all other votes are redundant. Systems involving proportional representation, such as the Additional Member System (AMS) are more democratic as electorates receive two votes so they...
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...Did the Conservatives Loose or Labour Win the 1945 General Election? The 1945 election came quickly after the aftermath of World War Two and few knew how the election was going to turn out with party politics being pushed into the background during the six years of total war that Britain and her people experienced. This came to a surprise when Churchill’s war government was pushed out in favour of Labour instead and there is much debate surrounding this issue as to who lost and who won this election, or an evolution in voter attitudes? The most important factor in determining whether Labour won or the Conservatives lost was the change in voter attitudes that resulted from six years of total war. During the war, a definitive leftward shift had occurred in the electorate and this steady change can be seen through the work Labour had done in the War Coalition on the Home Front in extending state control where people now viewed Labour’s seemingly ‘radical’ policies as beneficial in helping those in poverty and need. This can be linked to the experiences of the middle classes during evacuation where the level of deprivation in urban areas was exposed and now it only can be seen as natural that the middle classes wanted these issues to be dealt with. As well as on the Home Front, the views of socialism had changed due to the help that Stalin’s Russia had in defeating the Germans and thus was seen in good light. So this trend to the left changed the attitude of many to Labour and can...
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...characterises voting behaviour at UK general elections. Discuss There are many reasons why people choose to vote. Whether they have a strong view that agrees with the party they are voting for, or they are tactically voting so a certain party that they really don’t like doesn't get into parliament. Most of the time voting is devided into short term and long term decisions, which means that a certain member of the family will vote differently than usual because of a certain law that a party wants to pass. Recently, and leading up to the 2015 General election, there have been declining levels of class alignment. This means that a member of the public that usually votes conservative, might decide to vote labour, or vice versa. This shows the volatile side of voting as these statistics change depending on what the parties promise, however, it is becoming more common for people to vote the opposite to what they usually vote for because of party policies. This makes it very hard for people to predict the way other people are going to vote. Another point of volatile short term voting, is the declining levels of party id. This means there has been an increase in floating voters. The 2010 general election resulted in a coalition with the Liberal Democrats, and the Conservatives. In some respects, this was a surprising coalition and many of the parties laws they promised to change, never happened. Again this has had a knock on effect for the 2015 general election, because people cant trust...
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...Assess the main factors which determine how voters discriminate between political parties at general elections There are many factors that may affect voting behaviour; of which age, occupation, financial stability, gender, party records and place of residence are all important. However, the first, and possibly most important, is the party policies shown on the manifesto. Voters may often choose to vote instrumentally, to find the policies that suit them and their needs best. For example, an expansionary fiscal policy will often particularly appeal to those who are poorer, as they are more likely to want the Government to help create jobs and improve services so that they can gain a better grounding. Those unemployed would also find the appeal in these policies. (This would most likely be a Labour policy) Policies often come down to opinion and this is often implemented by a type of upbringing or personal experience. Class used to be a factor in this, but after class dealignment happened in the late 1960s, embourgeoisement started to happen with the working class and there was partisan dealignment. This meant that political parties had to work harder to keep voters, so their policies had to be more widely aimed. Instead of just aiming to appeal to a poor working class or a rich upper class, these were just less obvious sets of people. The working class grew in affluence and they allied themselves less with Labour. New Labour responded to this by moving further right on the...
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...In England and the United Kingdom as a whole we have a Head of state this being in the form of monarch who is Queen Elizabeth II the longest Serving head of state as of the 9th September 2015. In the UK we have differing forms of government. One being the European parliament this is mad up of 736 members who represent all 27 member states of the EU. There are 72 that are directly elected from the UK and are there to represent the interests of our country. MEPS represent larger regions than MPs for example east midlands rather than Bassetlaw thus meaning this county of ours is represented by MEPS. This is because as shown previously we are linked to the EU, as we are a member state. The role of the parliament is to draft legislation that has an impact across all the EU states on issues such as: the environment, equal opportunities, transport, consumer rights, movement of workers and goods. Another is central government which is the layer of government that operates across the whole country. Ours is located in the city of Westminster, which is set with two houses in Westminster these being the House of Lords and the House of commons. Central government has very specific responsibilities that no other level of government is able to do. For example: signing treaties or agreements with other nations, making laws, defending the nation. When a vote is taken in the House of commons for example for a proposed law to be added there are sections which are part of the house of...
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...Charter Village of Lennon 1 INDEX CHAPTER I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX BOUNDARIES ………..……………………………. POWERS IN GENERAL ……..………………….… PLAN OF GOVERNMENT ……..……………….… REGISTRATION, NOMINATION ...…..…………. RECALL …..…...…………………………………… ORDINANCES …….. ………………………………. INITIATIVE AND REFERENDUM ……..……….. CONTRACTS ……..………………………………… GENEREAL FINANCE, VILLAGE BUDGET AND FUNDS …….………………………………….. GENERAL ASSESSMENTS AND TAXATION …. STREETS AND SIDEWALKS …………………….. FRANCHISES ………………………………………. PLANNING AND PLATS ………………………….. MAINTENANCE OF VILLAGE UTILITIES ……. INTERIM LEGISLATION ………………………… MISCELLANEOUS ………………………………… SUBMISSION AND ELECTION ………………….. PAGE 1 2 6 13 19 20 22 25 26 29 33 34 35 36 37 38 40 X XI XII XIII XIV XV XVI XVII 2 CHAPTER I BOUNDARIES The Village of Lennon shall include those portions of Sections 24 and 25, Town 7 North, Range 4 East, Venice Township, Shiawassee County, Michigan, and those portions of Sections 19 and 30, Town 7 North, Range 5 East, Clayton Township, and Genesee County, Michigan, described as follows: The Northeast one-quarter (NE ¼) of Section 25, T7N, R4E, Venice Township, Shiawassee County, Michigan, and all that part of the NW ¼, Section 25, T7N, R4E, Venice Township, Shiawassee County, Lying North of Lytle Road and East of the Centerline Of the Ganssley Drain. The Southeast one-quarter (SE ¼) and all that part Of the Southwest one-quarter (SW ¼) lying East of The Centerline of Ganssley Drain and the South one-half (S ½)...
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...3241722 INDIRECT ELECTION FOR THE REGIONAL ELECTIONS IN INDONESIA Primary Source * Based on The 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia, Chapter VI , Article 18, Clause 4 (Regional Authorities) : “ Governors, Regents, and Mayors, respectively as head of regional government of the provinces, regencies and municipalities, shall be elected democratically.” This legislation can be accessed in the www.mahkamahkonstitusi.go.id or www.dpr.go.id. It is the highest constitution in Indonesia that substantiates the Indonesian values and laws. It is the 4th amended constitution that is relevant to this law issue. I located the legislation by entering the website of Indonesian Constitutional Court (Mahkamah Konstitusi) and I searched it by typing the keyword “1945 constitution” in the search engine and downloaded the pdf file on 15 September 2015. * Based on Act number 32 of 2004, Article 56 and number 22 of 2007, Article 1 concerning The Conduct of General Elections, which essentially state: “The regional election in the provinces, regencies and municipalities, herein after is referred to as the Election of regional heads, which is conducted in a direct, free, and fair way in the Unified State of the Republic of Indonesia based on Pancasila and the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia.” These legislations support each other in substantiating the mechanisms of regional elections and provide the basic frameworks of how regional elections should be conducted...
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...A Visit To An Exhibition Recently an exhibition was held in our town. It was not so big and grand as the recent any metro city fair, yet it was remarkable in its own way. It was a very modest shows nevertheless it was represented and well attended. It was organized by the district authorities to encourage the introduction of cottage industries in villages. The district collector, RDO and the local leaders took a keen interest and put up a very good show. Never before had we realized that our village possessed such as vast scope for the development of cottage industries. We all felt that a vast heap of wealth was lying unused in villages. The exhibition was held in the vast grounds of the banks of the river Cauvery. A temporary fence was erected on all sides and temporary stalls were built to accommodate exhibits of different articles. The exhibitions lasted for about a week and were attended by thousands of people. Buying and selling worth thousands of rupees was done. The district authorities were pleased with its success. First there were agricultural exhibits which the farmers had displayed. There were vegetables of all kinds and sizes. One farmer had a peculiar pumpkin which was praised by everybody. I was surprised to see a plum with resembled a red apple. There was also exhibited fine specimen of cereals which attracted much attention. There were also remarkable specimens of carrots and radish, sweet potatoes and tomatoes of different tastes and colors. Specimens...
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...grassroots political involvement, infringed on First Amendment rights, and helped to entrench incumbents in office while doing nothing to address the allegedly corrupting influence of money in politics. The 1974 amendments to the federal election campaign act constituted the first effort to establish a comprehensive, national system of campaign finance regulation. Specifically, the amendments established these limits for federal campaign finance, individual contributions were limited to $1,000 per candidate per election, with primary and general elections counting as separate elections, individuals were limited to $25,000 per calendar year in total contributions to candidates, party committees, and political action committees, PAC’s and party committees were limited to contributing $5,000 per candidate per election. In addition, the 1974 amendments established the presidential financing system of matching funds to candidates for amounts raised in contributions of $250 or less, established overall spending limits for eligibility to receive matching funds, and provided for public funding of major party candidates in the general election for president. The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 brought about a modern take on the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1974. Buckley vs Valeo, is a famous case around campaign finance as a coalition of liberals and conservatives attacked FECA as...
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...In this essay I will explain the electoral process used in uk elections and then try to compare the electoral processes used at different levels of government in the uk. I will gather my research from internet or from books to present my essay. P3) There are lots of types of elections in the United Kingdom but the most common are general elections and local elections. I will now explain in detail one election process and clearly identify which government it relates to. A General election can occur when all the seats in the House of Commons are open for a re-election. There is a maximum term where a parliament can sit without general election for around 5 years, this type of election most often happens every 3 to 5 years but it can also depend on when the party that has power thinks they might have the best chance of winning the most seats. The prime minister is the one who makes the decision. So who can stand for election? Well this can depend on which type of election, for a parliamentary election, whether a general election where all 646 constituencies can be open for re-election, or a by election for just one constituencies. You also must be 21 years of age and be British, you must have to be nominated by 10 of the registered electors in the constituency and if you want to stand for a certain party you must receive the authorisation from that certain party. Therefore if you don’t have the authorisation from that certain party you are classed as independent, you must also...
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...Explain why the conservatives lost the 1906 General Election There are three main reasons the conservatives lost the 1906 General Election, one of the main reasons was the tariff reform. The Tariff Reform was a pressure group setup in 1903 to protest against unfair foreign imports to protect British industry from foreign competition. It was launched by Joseph Chamberlain; he wanted to reintroduce tariffs, with a lower level tariff for goods coming into Britain from the empire than for goods imported from non-empire countries. This policy was knows as imperial protectionism. Chamberlain argued, this would protect British jobs, help pay for social reforms and strengthen Britain’s position in the world be integrating the empire into an effective unit. At this time Balfour was the conservative prime minister and he was a very weak leader with not very many political skills he was also a weak leader, at this time he did not understand the working men’s reaction to the tariff and he allowed Joseph Chamberlain to make the Tariff Reform a key unionist policy from 1903 onwards this is showing us he could not control Joseph Chamberlain showing he was a weak and unsuitable leader. The Tariff Reform did damage the conservatives as there was a split in the party with people moving over to the liberals as the middle class and working class feared dearer foods and falling in living standards. The liberals voted for free trade so did disagree with the Tariff Reforms, Winston Churchill actually...
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