Flawed Political Party Primaries In Nigeria's Fourth Republic: The Case Of The Peoples' Democratic Party (PDP)

Abstract

As much as elections are pivotal to democratic development, the process of identifying party candidates for elective positions is also central to the success of democracy. Hence, party primaries are supposed to be assemblies directed at choosing popular candidates who would carry party banners during elections.
However, through an assessment of extant secondary data, this paper submits that the experience in the Peoples Democratic Party; the ruling party, during the 2007 General Elections was a case of deliberate imposition of candidates by powerful party leaders. The paper therefore concludes that the flawed party primaries in Nigeria negate the very essence of democracy; giving the country therefore, a democratic process that may best be described as pseudo.

African Journal for the Psychological Study of Social Issues Vol. 11 (1&2) 2008: pp. 281-290