2023 GENERAL ELECTIONS: IMPLICATIONS ON SUSTAINABLE DEMOCRACY AND NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

Elections when conducted in a credible and fair manner according to global best practices act as framework for democratic development. Since her transition from military to democratic system of government, Nigeria as a nation has conducted different elections with the 2023 general elections as the most recent of all. This paper therefore examines the implications of the 2023 General Elections on sustainable democracy and national development in Nigeria with the sole objective of identifying some critical challenges which hampered the success of the elections. The study adopted the descriptive research design and collected data from journals, textbooks, newspaper reports and online materials bothering on the subject matter while content analysis was used to analyze the data. The democratic elitism theory was used as theoretical framework to further analyze the implications of the 2023 general elections in Nigeria. The study amongst others found out that; no doubt the elections brought some electoral advancement like the use of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and the Electoral Act, 2020 however, the election recorded some challenges such as; voter intimidation, thuggery, electoral arson amongst others. The study therefore recommends amongst others that, there is need for electoral reorientation, electoral fairness and justice and that the electoral umpire should be allowed to operate on an independent basis as stipulated in the Constitution.