| dc.description.abstract | Low voter turnout has continued to be a reoccurrence in Bwari Area Council of the Federeal Capital Territory, especially during presidential elections. Though, political participation is a fundamental aspect of the democratic system, empowering citizens to influence governance through elections. It is the number of voluntary activities undertaken by the public to influence public policy either directly or by affecting the selection of persons who make those policies. Examples; voting in elections, working on political campaigns, donating money to candidates or causes, contacting public officials, petitioning, protesting, and working with other people on issues that affect the generality of society. Political scientists are of the view that no other activity allows the opinions of more people to be represented in decision-making than voting in an election, thus, as one of the basic principles of participatory democracy, each citizen gets one vote and each vote counts. However, in Bwari Area Council which is the case study of this research, voter turnout, a subset of political participation, has witnessed a consistent decline during presidential elections. Thus, this study assessed the voters’ turnout in Bwari Area Council during the 2023 presidential election. The primary objective of this study was to examine factors that influenced voter turnout in Bwari Area Council during the 2023 Presidential Election. In line with the foregoing, the specific objectives of the study include. (i) Investigate the factors that influenced the number of registered voters and voter turnout in the Bwari Area Council during the 2023 Presidential Election. (ii) Identify the actual causes of low voter turnout in the 2023 presidential election in the Bwari Area Council. (iii) Assess the effectiveness of institutions responsible for voter education in promoting voter registration and voter turnout. (iv) Evaluate the impact of logistical, structural, personal, and natural factors on voter turnout in previous presidential elections in the Bwari Area Council. The study’s justification lies in its quest to encourage more voter turnout in Bwari Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory during Presidential elections. In so doing, the study adopted the Psychological theory as its theoretical framework. For this study, the Mixed Research Design was adopted. The choice of this Research Design was deliberate because the study relied on Qualitative and Quantitative methods of data collection to achieve the specific objectives.
Qualitative data helped in gaining insight and exploring the depth, richness, and complexity inherent in the variables studied, while quantitative data was used to address the issues of “what” and “how” aspects of the research problem. The complementary usage of both data types formed the basis for the adoption of the mixed research method. The data for the study include secondary and primary data. The secondary data comprise journals, newspapers, library materials, INEC election reports, and the internet. The primary sources were the direct participant observation by the researcher who was an active participant in the 2015, 2019, and 2023 presidential elections processes as a Supervisory Presiding Officer (SPO) in Bwari Area Council. By and large, since the researcher wanted to get the voters’ opinions (primary data), the quantitative method through questionnaires was appropriate. Therefore, the representation of data was both in numerical and textual forms. The method of data analysis employed in this study depends on the objectives of the study. The objective-by-objective approach emphasizes the streamlining of research methods according to the specific objectives of the study. Details of the type of data, interpretation of data, as well as expectations based on existing theory were tailored to suit the objectives outlined in the study. The study observed that although the number of registered voters in Bwari Area Council going into the 2023 Presidential election was 279,792 however, only 96,444 representing (35%) did turn out to cast a ballot on the election day, meaning that voter turnout on the 2023 Presidential election in Bwari Area Council was low when compared with the number of registered voters. In line with the specific objectives of the study, findings from the study revealed that several factors were responsible for low voter turnout in the Bwari Area Council during the 2023 Presidential election. These factors include (i) voters’ perception that votes won’t count resulting from a lack of confidence in the electoral process, (ii) lack of confidence in the electoral umpire, (iii) lack of confidence in political leaders resulting from unfulfilled campaign promises, (iv) fear of election violence and insecurity, (v) scarcity of cash caused by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) naira redesign few months before the presidential election (vi) migration of registered voters at the time of election, (vii) prioritization of election by voters.
Thus, the following recommendations and conclusion were made; (i) Declaration of a state of emergency on voter/civic education by the government to address the issue of voters’ perception, (ii) Amendment of the 2022 Electoral Act by the National Assembly, (iii) Accountability of public/elected officials to the electorates, (iv) Sustenance of INEC’s autonomy, independence, and neutrality in the pursuit of its vision of serving as an independent and effective Election Management Body committed to the conduct of free, fair, and credible elections for sustainable democracy in Nigeria (v) Adequate training of electoral officials especially on useful application of technology to avoid shortcomings during elections, (vi) Improvement of the Security of lives and property in Bwari Area Council before, during and after elections, etc. This study analyzed factors influencing voter turnout in Bwari Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory focusing on the 2023 Presidential election. It acknowledged that political participation is a fundamental aspect of democratic systems, empowering citizens to influence governance through elections. Also, the health of a democratic nation's government is often measured by how actively its citizens participate in decision making especially politics. However, low voter turnout poses a challenge to the democratic process, affecting government legitimacy and hindering the delivery of democratic dividends. This study revealed the existence of low voter turnout in the Bwari Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory during Presidential elections. It further shows that slow turnout are due to voters' perception that their vote won't count following a loss of confidence in the electoral process, weak electoral system, lack of confidence in political leaders, inadequate voter/political education, failure of elected leaders fulfilling their campaign promises, insecurity/electoral violence, weak electoral justice system, loss of confidence in the electoral umpire, migration of registered voters at the time of election, and prioritization of election by voters. | en_US |
