EVALUATION OF THE ELECTORAL PROCESS OF THE 2015 GOVERNORSHIP ELECTION IN LAGOS STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

Democracy has gained universal acceptance and periodic eledion is one of basic feature of democracy. Since the advent of the Fourth Republic in 1999, several elections have been conducted at both national, state local government levels. However, the 2015 general elections served as turning points to the entire electoral process in Nigeria due to the higher acceptance of their outcomes and peaceful transition recorded. The paper evaluates electoral process of the 2015 gubernatorial election in Lagos State. The study adopted the historical method by using relevant journal articles, newspaper~ magazines and reports of eledoral bodies and agencies obtained from the internet. The study was anchored on the Procedural Theory of Democracy. The Content analysis method was used to gather from the data obtained, issues related to the eledoral process. The units of analysis include intra-party politics/candidates selection, campaign~ voting process and voters' behaviour, declaration of results and matters arising as well as performance of INEC Findings show that there was little intra-party democracy in the seledion of flag bearers among the two leading parties. Furthermore, the paper found that candidates engage in different kinds of political campaigns such as media tour~ rallies, and social media posts. The study recommends that political parties should condud proper primary elections and that INEC should improve its performances in future eledions by recruiting and training qualified personnel for proper electoral conduct in order to advance democracy for development in Nigeria.