Elections are defined as the act or process of electing or choose candidates or representatives to represent the people in a given county in the parliament, the executive and possibly into other arms of government as stipulated in the constitution of a particular county. For example, the US judges of the lower courts are elected. This is in order to; change government, control and account of the who have been elected, give citizens free choice of leaders, elect representatives to foster democracy, educate the electorates, promote competition among political parties.
There are many types of elections. They include: direct election, indirect election, by election, primary election, referendum, second ballot or run off election.
The electoral system is also known as the voting system. This are set of rules and regulations on how elections and referendum are carried out and how the results are determined. They are the methods, rules and regulations of a countries vote to determine the results and the winner or the outcome of the election. It is also seen as a manner in which votes cast by the voters in an election are translated into seats of power or offices of power in government.
Political electoral system are organized and conducted by the government and they state the rules that govern all aspects of the voting process during elections ( who is eligible to vote, who can stand as candidates representing their party, how votes are translated into election outcome, how ballots are cast and how they are counted). The political electoral system are determined by the constitution and election laws are conducted by the election committee.
Elections in Nigeria is a way or form of choosing cans into the Nigerian federal government. The independent National electoral commission (INEC) is a body in the government agency charged with the responsibility of conducting and supervising every election. The problem with the Nigerian electoral system is that the political parties themselves do not want other citizens of the country to come out and vote. They just want their members, those assigned and appointed by them to vote. This is because they do not want any surprise by citizens on the day. They may have already planned and calculate the results knowing the amount of votes they would get. They are already sure who will vote and support them. They already know the results and votes that will come out of the polling stations. Due to the reasons most people do not come out to vote.
The pattern of voting in Nigeria varies from state to state. Even if the political party is not at so far as it has a solid backing in it’s state and has up to 80 percent of the states vote. They also deals with bribery and violence in order to claim the power.
The USA electoral system deals with something called the electoral college. The word college simply means or refers to a group of people who are electors with shared task to choose the or a president to the united state. The members of the united state wanted to establish a democratic system but were concerned that a direct vote may lead to the election of an unsuitable president. Each state was given a number of electors according to the size of their population today there are 538 elector. A successful President will need to get a majority of votes support from the electors(270) in order to win. In most states, the candidates will have to get a large number of votes to get the support of the electors in that state.
The difference between the Us and Nigeria electoral process include; 24 hours before election, a representative can not campaign in the Us but the case is different in Nigeria, Nigeria deals with bribery and corruption, Nigerians also manipulate electoral results, Nigerians deal with violence in the quest for power, due to this many have lost their lives and many have gotten injured. Power is no longer won by the absolute majority. In the Us, presidents usually get impeached for wrong doings and this is done in a peaceful way.
Nigerians also deals with thuggery and terrorism to get into the seat of authority, youths are giving the mandate by politicians to threaten their opponents, harm them in some cases and disrupt the peace in an election. They go as far as stealing ballot boxes. The US election results are shown and given for the way it is. The elected president gets into seat In a free and fair way.
