An election is a formal decision making process by which a population i.e. the electorate choosing by voting an individual or officers to hold public offices. Election have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy have operated since the 17th century. Elections may fill offices in the legislature, in the executive, the judiciary and for regional and local government. This process is also used in many other private and business organizations, from clubs to voluntary associations and corporations.
POST-ELECTION VIOLENCE
Post-election violence is a specific form of electoral violence. Electoral violence is “any random or organized act that seeks to determine, delay, or otherwise influence an electoral process through threat, verbal intimidation, hate speech, disinformation, physical assault, forced ‘protection’, blackmail, destruction of property, or assassination’. The target of electoral violence can be people, places, data, or things. In an attempt to influence the electoral process, perpetrators of electoral violence may attempt to delay, disrupt, or derail a poll and determine the winners of competitive races for political office. Three key elements in the above definition of electoral violence are worthy to note. The first is that like any other form of violence, electoral violence manifests in physical forms (kidnapping, killing, and destruction of property) and non-physical forms (threats, intimidation and blackmail).
Secondly, the main goal of electoral violence is to influence the electoral process, either by changing the outcome of elections or by disrupting the electoral process. Thirdly, electoral violence can occur at different periods in the election cycle; that is, before, during, or after election. Therefore, what distinguishes post-election violence from other forms of electoral violence is the fact that it occurs just after polling, usually during or after collation and announcement of election results. In interrogating post-election violence, analysts focus on the election cycle, tracking the differences between election violence at the various stages of the election cycle. An election cycle is typically made up of three stages: the pre-election phase, the election period, and the post-election phase.
Experts place a lot of emphasis on studying and observing violent activities around the election cycle. They see the electoral cycle approach as useful in developing conflict prevention and management strategies as well as providing assistance to countries struggling with the problem of electoral violence. Underlying the electoral cycle approach is the assumption that while violence can occur at any time in the election cycle and exhibit similar manifestations, there are markers that differentiate the nature of violence that occur at different periods in an election cycle.
The election phase includes activities around the polling such as distribution of election materials, accreditation of voters, and actual voting. These activities normally take place on the polling day. Acts of violence at the election phase often involve voter intimidation, snatching of ballot boxes or ballot papers, ballot stuffing, and attack on election officials and observers. Violence at the election phase would normally begin from the polling centers and may tend to spread thereafter.
THE EVENT OF 12TH JUNE 1993 ELECTION IN NIGERIA
Presidential elections were held in Nigeria on 12th June 1993, the fairest since the 1983 military coup. The result was a victory for Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), who defeated Bashir Tofa of the National Republican Convention (NPC). However, the elections were later annulled by military ruler Ibrahim Babangida, leading to a crisis that ended with Sani Abacha heading a coup later in the year. About 14million Nigerian voted in the election. The june 12 election was monitored and endorsed by over 3,000 election observers from various parts of Nigeria and the international community and was viewed as incredible.
On June 14th, 1993, the Military Government succumbed the president of the National Electoral Commission (NEC) to stop the announcement of the results already authorized by the NEC office at Abuja. Prior to the intervention, NEC had announced the results of 14 States with the Abiola/Kingide ticket leading comfortably. Nine days later during the burial of Musa Yar’Adua, father of Shehu Yar’Adua,feelers of the cancellation of the election reached Abiola and his supporters in Katsina where he had gone to commensurate with the Yar’Adua family. On his return from the trip,he was greeted with notes from journalists on June 23,1993. The notes was about a press release signed by Nduka Iraabor on the cancellation of the June 12 election. Abiola who became upset released statements signaling his determination and that of his party to fight the annulment.
The SDP leadership subsequently held a meeting in Benin in July 4th-5th and took a stance, contrary to the military that June 12 was non-negotiable. However, Yar’Adua whose group controlled the party leadership opposed an anti military stand.
By early July 1993, a committee comprised by the chairman of the party, Anthony Anenih and dominated by the Yar’Adua faction was asked to meet with the opposition party NRC for talks on moving the nation towards a democratic and united goal. However the committee jettisoned the party’s hardline June 12 position of the Benin meeting and supported a plan for an interim government in partnership with NRC and the military government and also that a move to force or disgrace the military out of office was out of place. This plan was supported by Olusegun Obasanjo and Yar’Adua. A few weeks after the multi party discussions, the presumed winner of the June 12 election fled to London upon rumors of an impeding attack on his residence. After the seemingly pro interim government and anti-June 12 stance of Anenih, and the powerful Yar’Adua faction and with Abiola Abroad, the struggle for the actualization of a democratic government was borne by the senate under the leadership of Lyorchia Agu, though his deputy was seen as an ally of vice president Augustus Aikhomu.
POST ELECTION CRISIS OF THE JUNE 12 ELECTION
Following the annulment of the June 12 1993 election, there was a feeling of insecurity in the country as many non-indigenes working in various cities in Nigeria began moving back to their native lands. Also a few foreign governments released statements denouncing the cancellation and imposing minor sanctions on the country.
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