School of Communication and Information Technology

Democracy thrives on the principle that power belongs to the people. The people exercise power through their elected representatives, whose mandates must be subjected to periodic renewals on terms dictated by the laws of the land in conformity with conventional democratic principles and practices. In this context, the Nigerian reform process has been seen as an opportunity to strengthen mass involvement and participation in the democratic process by removing existing barriers in such a way that it leads to vast improvement in registration and voting practices: essentially to guarantee the voting right of all Nigerians and ensure that the peoples vote count. The inability to conduct credible elections in the country has been attributed to the long period of military rules, coupled with weak democratic institutions and process and host of other historical factors which have led to the emergence of a political culture characterized by electoral violence, monetized politics, low political accountability, abuse and personalization of power, general apathy towards election and low participation of critical segment of the society, especially wome