Electoral violence is ignited when politicians and their supporters foist their inordinate will on others or when there is resistance to such imposition. Such violence is associated with rigging, ballot-snatching/stuffing, disenfranchisement, shooting to scare away voters, rewriting of results, falsification, vote-buying, kidnapping and outright killing. For now, it appears that is almost impossible to completely wipe away electoral violence from our polity.
For instance, in a polling unit in Aguda, Surulere, Lagos State, thugs allegedly pummeled voters out of queues while at the Okota polling unit, miscreants set ablaze already thumb-printed ballot papers and in Mushin, street urchins or ‘area boys’ stormed a polling booth and carted away ballot boxes. In Lekki, four young men allegedly beat up a younger man who was ferreted out of a polling unit.
No doubt, electoral violence promotes jungle justice and discourages eligible voters from voting, making their level of participation to be greatly inhibited. The emergence of candidates becomes questionable when the political turf is left to hooligans and trouble-makers. This invariably affects the quality of leadership that would emerge at the end of the day. Good governance is only possible when truly democratically-elected representatives are given daunting state responsibilities.