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