MEANING OF ELECTORAL MALPRACTICES
Malpractices means improper conduct or behavior. It is also the act of failing to carry out a guilty properly. Electoral malpractice, therefore, means a form of electoral misconduct, especially during election.. It is an act of influencing the electoral processes towards gaining advantage that will ensure political power. The politicians, electoral commissions, security officers, electorates, and someone at the major contributor to the social menace.
FORMS OF ELECTORAL MALPRACTICES
ELECTORAL malpractice are in varying forms. Some of them are discussed below :
- USING OF FAKE BALLOT PAPERS : ballot paper among the voting instruments in an election. A slip is given to each eligible voters to cast his vote for our chosen candidate of political party. The electoral commission issue out ballot papers and send them to various pulling boots in the country through the electoral offices. But some politicians, who was in political post at any costs, go as far as printing fake ballot papers, conspire with the electoral officers and use them alongside the original ballot papers, in order to win an election.
- UNDERAGE VOTING : although voting in an election is a political right of a citizen of a country, it has limitations. Among these limitations is the age limit. In Nigeria, for instance, a person must attend the age of 18 before such can qualify to vote or participate in electoral activities. It is now rampart in the in our political system to involve children who are below age of 18, and electoral activities. This is done by some positions politicians in order to win election at all costs.
- BRIBERY : bribery is an act of offering money or gift in order to gain the vote of the electorate or win an election. It is an indecent act, which has almost become part of Nigerian system. It is part of our political activities. Some influential politicians perpetrate with this act by bribing electoral officials, security officers and the electorate, in order to achieve their political aims.
- ARTIFICIAL HOARDING OF ELECTORAL MATERIALS : the official of electoral bodies deliberately hide electoral materials so that lawful electorate will not be able to vote during elections. They will later released the materials to the position that must have given birth to them. Those politicians who then engage in mass thumb printing and stuffing of ballot boxes with unlawful votes.
- STEALING OF ELECTORAL MATERIALS : stealing of electoral materials is one of the means by which some politicians engage in electoral malpractices. They do this in many ways. They can decide to steal voters registers of a word with the aim of removing some names and including their members name in it. Voters card and keep them till election day, so as to let their supporters have the chance of voting twice. Also, they may designed to steal ballot papers, Inc pad and ballot boxes Off for the purpose of winning the election at all cost.
- RIGGING OF ELECTION : rigging is an act of influencing an election in a dishonest way so as to get the results that you want. Election results can be read by electoral officers with the operation of battery agents, law enforcement agent as well as some guy had politicians to favour a candidate who might have right bribed them. The tamper with the election results, officer fire the finger to favor the candidate of their choice.
- PRESENTING FAKE MANIFESTO : manifestos are programmed of action outlined by political party. They are what a political party intend to do for the electorate if it eventually win an election. They are combined in the form of book and given to the electorate or read out through political canvassers to convince the electorate to vote for them. It is allowed me these days that the political party have found of highlighting the program which they cannot fulfill to cajole the electorate to vote for them in.
- ANNOUNCEMENT OF WRONG CANDIDATES : politicians also penetrate electoral malpractice by announcing their candidates as winner, where the out rightly lose the election. This also cannot be easily achieved without having the markings or support of some strong politicians who would have influenced the electoral commissions. In this situation, electoral officers are either bright or threaten, or both, to announce their favorite candidate or political party has the winner.
- UNLAWFUL DETENTION OF CANDIDATES : some unscrupulous politicians unlawfully detained some rival candidates idea strong supporters to the bar such from preparing well for elections.
CAUSES OF ELECTORAL MALPRACTICES :
Electrons the game of figure, in which has the highest figure is declared the winner. It is like a game in which someone or some group must win. The main cause of electoral malpractice, however is that everybody wants to win in an election. The causes of electoral malpractice are as discussed below:
- POVERTY : it is evidence that a larger percentage of people living in some countries are poor. They lived from hand to mouth. Politicians hijack this situation to achieve their political him. They bring out money to them in order to use them to engage in various electoral malpractices. Some of these masses know the right thing to do but cannot do it because they want to survive.
- EXTRAVAGANT : lavish spending of government money by our politicians is one of the causes of electoral malpractices. The amount they spend on clothing themselves, furnishing their offices, buying official cars and other benefits are to animals, tools making it difficult for them to want to leave their offices. They are aware that only elections can stop them from this privilege, so they are ready to engage in any electoral malpractices to return them self to office. This is why they engage in what is called do or die politics.
- ILLITERACY : illiteracy is another cause of electoral malpractices. It is the inability to read, write or no one’s rights. Alisa the person is not better than a blind man in some cases, because such a person can be sold or denial of what belongs to him or her. Because majority of some people inhabiting a country do not know the electoral rights and duties, and also do not know the indication of electoral malpractices to them and the entire nation, they allowed to be used in various ways for electoral malpractices.
- ETHNIC INFLUENCE : many country has different ethnic groups. Each of these ethnic groups want to be relevant in a political dispensation of the country. For them to achieve this, each ethnic groups we want to engage in electoral malpractices in order to have their people in the corridor of power. This is a vital cause of electoral malpractices.
- FEAR OF POVERTY : crucible person, including our politicians, know that poverty is a problem of life that no one wishes for. Because of this, these politicians do not want to leave for the local power, where they freely and oil pecks of office, which makes it difficult for them to leave office and become ordinary citizen a country. Instead, they are ready to partake in an electoral malpractices they can make them retain their offices.
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