2023 General Elections: Dashed Hopes, Lessons and Pathways for Rethinking Election-Democracy Nexus in Nigeria

Undoubtedly, election is the cardinal defining characteristic of a democracy since the legitimacy of democratic governments anchors heavily on the contest of elections, which must be free, fair, and regular. Notably, the conduct of elections in Nigeria often suffers from a number of organizational and administrative shortcomings which in turn affects the nature, degree of transparency of the electoral process and its eventual outcomes. This paper focused on Nigeria’s 2023 elections using a historical and descriptive investigative approach, with pertinent data drawn from documentary sources and analysed within the context of democratic theory. Obviously, though there was intensive preparation by INEC and a significant improvement in the conduct of the elections, especially with implementation of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal, the outcome of the polls was a dashed hope for Nigerians. The election was marred by electoral violence, voters’ suppression, ethnic politics, low voter turnout and insufficient technology. Lessons from the election indicate that guaranteeing electoral credibility requires concerted and determined effort, since technology alone cannot ensure it. Accordingly, the paper recommended, among other things, a thorough evaluation of the 2023 elections by INEC to identify operational flaws and remedy them effectively to restore citizens’ dashed hopes; unbundling of the commission and some of its responsibilities delegated to other institutions; undertaking continuous reforms towards conducting credible and acceptable elections founded on democratic principles and aimed at achieving electoral integrity and satisfying the expectations of electorates in future elections. Keywords: Citizens’ participation, democratic governance, electoral norms, periodic elections,