LEGAL FRAMEWORK FOR CITIZENS’ PARTICIPATION IN ELECTORAL PROCESS: IMPERATIVE FOR COMPULSORY VOTING SYSTEM IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Voting in an election is one of the most important civic responsibilities of every citizen of a country. This responsibility is however widely neglected notwithstanding the fact that an effective discharge of the responsibility to vote will eventually determine or influence the performance of elected leaders. The voters in Nigeria as well as other countries have at one time or the other decided not to vote since it is their right to decide whether to vote or not to vote. The constitutional right not to vote has aggravated the apathy among the Nigerian voters to the extent that they no longer see voting as a civic obligation. This is made worse by the absence of panel measure or impediment to be suffered by those who fail to exercise their right to vote. The objective of this work is to analyze the existing legal framework on the right to vote in an election and find a common ground between the right of a citizen in an election and the necessity to make voting during elections in Nigeria compulsory. The paper adopted doctrinal legal research methodology using analytical approach with the aid of statutes, case laws, journal articles, text books and internet materials. At the end, the paper concluded that though compulsory voting may seem difficult to adopt in Nigerian electoral system at the moment, the danger inherent in non-voting attitude of Nigerian voters far outweighs the dangers involved in making voting compulsory.