Report

Electoral Corruption in Nigeria: A Study of the 2019 General Elections

This Report is the outcome of research undertaken to understand the drivers and the implications of two forms of electoral corruption, vote-buying and the abuse of the power of incumbency, in Nigeria, and to offer recommendations to diminish their salience as contributory factors in the distortion of competitive party and electoral politics in the country. The broader objective is that the data-based analysis, findings, and recommendations for political and electoral reform in the Report will help to generate policy advocacy, action and reform to diminish the unwholesome impact of the two forms of electoral corruption on the conduct of general elections in Nigeria. Hopefully, it will strengthen electoral integrity and the protection of the mandate of the electorate more firmly and sustainably and brighten the conditions and prospects for good governance in the country substantially. Unless the toxic economic, political and socio-economic environment that inhibits good governance in the country is sanitized, democratic elections cannot serve the positive function of democratic consolidation in the country. With this in view, the main objective of the study was to find out and analyze the experience and perceptions of the two forms of electoral corruption during the 2019 presidential and governorship, by a randomly stratified sampled population of voters in the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria, and in two states in each of the six geopolitical zones of the Nigerian Federation.