SEQUENCING OF THE 2019 GENERAL ELECTIONS AND ITS IMPLICATIONS ON CREDIBLE ELECTIONS IN INIGERIA

The set out objectives of the paper was to examine the issue of the credibility of the 2019 election looking at the way the election was sequenced. Relying on purely secondary data, the paper overviewed the 2019 election, looked at the legal framework of election sequence before finally looking the crux of the matter. From the work, it became clear that the 2019 election being the sixth since the return of democracy in 1999 had some improvements from the past elections especially that of voter registration. However, a general assessment of the election indicates that the election fell short of expectations. The election was not a radical departure from the past as issues that greeted previous election in Nigeria still reared their ugly head. Issues such as vote buying and selling, low voter turn (aparthy), insecurity, among others were issues Nigerians have to grapple with during the elections. More importantly, the paper discovered that the way the 2019 election was sequenced impacted seriously on the credibility of the election most especially the drama between the legislature and the executive on the attempted reordering of the election. The paper recommends that electoral offences should be taken seriously and committers of such offences should not be spared so as to serve as deterrent; the rejected bill for the amendment of the electoral Act should be revisited because contained in it are not only issue of election reordering but germane issues that will strengthen our electoral and democratic system and improve on its credibility among others.

KEYWORDS: Election, Democracy and Election Sequencing