Research On The Causes Of Electoral Violence In Nigeria

Since 1990, Under the impact of the third wave of democratization, Most African countries have imposed a multiparty democratic election.At the same time, the election of some countries was stuffed with sectarian mobilization, intimidation and violence.Such as Kenya,Zimbabwe,Nigeria,D.R.Congo,Togo and ivory coast.In Africa,electoral conflict and political violence has become an important feature in the process of democratization.Nigeria has the largest populations in Africa, since independence in 1960, the democratization process runs tortuously, experienced a long period of military rule.After the rebirth of multiparty democracy in 1999, Nigeria has suffer from electoral violence.In Nigeria, the electoral competition is very fierce, the winner can get huge profits, political power monopolized the social and economic resources. Election is political restructuring, means the redistribution of power and resources, the election became a winner-take-all game and zero-sum game.Given the fragile of judiciary and the state organs, politicians were used to manipulate the diversity of religious, ethnic and regional identity to win votes.At the same time, because of bad governance, the serious development imbalance between the North and the South,small arms and light weapon proliferation out of control, a large number of unemployed youth are vulnerable to be recruited by politicians as party gangs to threatened the election.Along with the social problems such as corruption, unemployment will further arouse people’s grievances, the lack of citizen education makes people resorted to violent protest way rather than a legal way to solve disputes. Given the legacy of culture of political violence during the period of Military Government and the "official amnesty" political culture, the political ecology in the election campaign was further deteriorate.Unofficial constitution "north-south presidential rotation" agreement has become a "time bomb" it can lead to violence at any moment.In Nigeria, the characteristics of multiplex social structure, the serious development imbalance between the North and the South, high unemployment of young people, Immature political architecture, "amnesty" and culture of political violence.These factors made Nigeria’s Election in a high risk, one or two incentives could induce violent conflict.Prior to the settlement of these long-term structural issues, Nigeria’s election still be in a high risk zone, it may break out violence in the future elections.Electoral violence undermined the legitimacy of the election process and election results, influence the democracy development and the prospects of democratic consolidation, Nigeria has a long way to go to improve electoral governance and orderly political competition.