Free and Fair Election

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Free and Fair Election in Nigeria An election is a process of getting opinion in order to select a head for the group or population. Election will be held to collect the votes and will be counted for each competitor, afterwards the competitor with the majority votes wins. Free and fair elections allow people living in a representative democracy to determine the political make-up and future policy direction of their nation’s government. Free and fair elections increase the likelihood of a peaceful transfer of power. They help to ensure that losing candidates will accept the validity of the elections result and cede power to the new government. Abiodun asserts that “Radical democratic theory never tires of claiming that democracy means something deeper and wider than mere elections, that to have real substance, democracy must embody social and economic equality” (23). So indeed it is. But it is mistaken to think that the deeper sense of democracy is necessarily opposed to or obfuscated by its other, narrow political meaning. Most people are not aware of the fact that “a real and tangible connection exists in Nigeria between elections and, if not equality of wealth and income, at least equality of status” (Gelles 2). I believe Nigeria’s next coming election, coming up next month, will be more problematic, and will have wide impact not only to Nigeria but also for other regions. Both Nigeria and international commentators have praised the leadership of election commissioner Professor Attahiru Jega a distinguish educator and pro-democracy advocate, and there will be unprecedented levels of monitoring by Nigeria civil society activist, as access to mobile phones and to the internet have both grown significantly since the previous election. But the prospect of fraud and violence are still substantial. Nigeria was granted independence in October 1st, 1960, as a
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