PRE-ELECTION LITIGATION AND THE CRISIS OF INTERNAL PARTY DEMOCRACY IN NIGERIA’S FOURTH REPUBLIC (1999–2023)

Abstract

Pre-election litigation has become a defining feature of Nigeria’s electoral process, largely driven by weak internal party democracy. Internal party conflicts and issues have continued to plague the Nigerian political party system, resulting in increased internal problems within the parties and a surge in court cases. This has significantly affected the Nigerian democratic system, threatening its continued existence. It is against this background that this article critically examines how intra-party conflicts, ranging from flawed primaries to wrongful substitutions, have flooded the judiciary with disputes and destabilized Nigeria’s democratic consolidation. This work considered the existing legislation on the subject to identify the prospects of the existing legal structure, the challenges inherent in the legal structure, and also infused a comparative analysis of the pre-election litigation and internal party conflicts in Nigeria with that of other countries. In carrying out this research, the doctrinal method of data collection was adopted. This method involved the reliance on primary and secondary sources of law. The researcher found that the extant legal structure in Nigeria presented significant issues for pre-election litigation and internal party conflicts, including insufficient regulatory frameworks and the various claw-backs in the law. It was recommended that reforms in party structures, INEC’s oversight, and judicial approaches to pre-election matters should be employed in order to ensure that the Nigerian political system is effective, thereby ensuring wider voter trust in the system and the development of democracy in Nigeria.