PURPOSES OF ELECTION (8)

PURPOSES OF ELECTION

Elections are defined as the process or means through which the electorates choose their representatives into government positions. Elections serve the following purposes and functions in modern democratic societies:

(i)         Election serves as a means of recruiting or appointing political leaders or office holders.

(ii)        Elections serve as a means of effecting or ensuring smooth change of government

(iii)       Election ensures acceptance of political leaders by the people.

(iv)       Elections ensures stability of government

(v)        Elections allow full participation of citizens, especially the electorate in the government of their country.

(vi) Election makes government popular, democratic and responsible

(vii) Election serves as a means of ensuring that political sovereignty is vested in the people in a democracy.

Election Concepts

(1)  Primary Election: this is a type of election held or conducted within a political party in order to choose representatives who will represent the party in the general election where the final leaders will be elected.

(2)  General Election: this is a type of election where all the electorate in a country participates at the same time on a given day, to elect representatives into government positions. In general election, the various political parties view or contest in an election at the same time. General election is different from primary election. Primary election only take place within a given political party and only members of the political party concerned form the electorate.

(3)  Bye- Election: this is a type of election conducted to fill a vacant seat in the parliament when a legislator dies, resigned or recalled by his constituency.

(4)  Voting by Proxy: this is a method of voting in absential. In other words, it is a method of giving authority to somebody to enable him to vote on behalf of a person who is not present at the time of voting.

(5)  Referendum: this is a type of election held to determine an important constitutional issue. It can also be defined as a type of election held to ascertain the opinion of the people on an issue that affects them. In type of election, the electorate are usually asked to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ on the issue in question. Referendum is sometimes called plebiscite.

(6)  Political Gerrymandering: this is the act of manipulating constituency delimination with  the purpose of favoring a given political party in the election e.g. sharing a country into electoral constituencies in such a way as to make one party to win more seats than others.

(7)  Electoral Constituency: this is a geographical division of the country into electoral units.

(8)  Federal Constituency: this is electoral unit for electing members of House of Representatives.

(9)  State Constituency: this is electoral unit for electing members of State House of Assembly

(10) Single Member Constituency: this is a type of constituency where only a member of one candidate is elected at a time.

(11) Multi-Member Constituency: this is a type of constituency where more than one member or candidates are elected at a time. In this type of constituency there are more than one or several seat to fill.

(12)  Senatorial District: this is electoral unit for electing members of the House of Senate.

(13) Presiding Officer: a Presiding Officer is a person appointed by an Electoral Commission to be in charge of the conduct of election in a polling station or polling booth.

(14) Returning Officer: a returning officer is a person appointed by an Electoral Commission to collect the results of the election conducted in each polling station from the presiding officers for onward transmission to the electoral commission for announcement.

(15) Party Agent: this is a representative of a political party whose duty is to ensure that there are no electoral malpractices to the disadvantage of his party.

(16) Electoral ward: this is a geographical unit for electing local government chairman and counselors.

(17) Decree, Edicts and Bye-Laws: decrees are laws made by the (Federal) Military Government, Bye-Laws are made by the Local Authority or Local Government.

(18) An Act or Statutes: these are laws made by the parliament

(19) Royal Assent: this is the signature of a President or a head of state which can make bill become Acts.