ELIZABETH IKPAHA

Kenya and Nigeria both have multi-party systems, but their voting and party systems are not the same in terms of structure, efficiency, or political integrity. This is because each country has its own problems to solve. Even though both countries are officially democratic, their democracies don’t work well because of problems with government and election openness.

The way elections work in Kenya is a mix of proportional voting and first-past-the-post (FPTP). To become president, a candidate must get more than 50% of the vote across the whole country and at least 25% of the votes in more than half of Kenya’s 47 counties. This system makes sure that people from all over the country can be included. The FPTP approach is used for parliamentary elections, and candidates run in single-member areas. Kenya’s politics are controlled by alliances that were made before the elections. These coalitions show the racial variety of the country. But its party system isn’t stable; parties often form, dissolve, or merge around election times, which makes people less loyal to their party. Kenya’s elections have often been tainted by violence and claims of fraud, like the fighting and violence that followed the 2007 election. Reforms, like creating the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), are meant to make elections more open, but they keep running into problems.

In Nigeria, too, FPTP is used for legislative and regional elections, but there are special rules for presidential elections. The president must not only get the most votes, but also at least 25% of the votes in two-thirds of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory. This is to make sure that they have support from a lot of different parts of the country. In Nigeria, there are more organized parties. The All Progressives Congress (APC) and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) are the two main parties that run most of the government. Many people, though, say that the party system is run by the elite, that it doesn’t have strong internal democracy, and that it focuses on ethnic and regional activism over theory. Nigeria’s elections have often been harmed by fraud, bloodshed, and problems with the logistics, as was seen in the controversial 2023 general elections.

Kenya and Nigeria both want fair elections that show how diverse their countries are, but structural problems make this hard to achieve. Kenya’s coalition-based party system encourages everyone to join, but weak party frameworks could lead to chaos. Nigeria’s more formalized party system provides some stability, but it also often strengthens the power of the powerful. In both countries, violence at the polls and claims of fraud are widespread, which hurts trust in the political process. In both cases, efforts are still going on to change the way elections work and make them more open, but they are running into big political and practical problems.

 Both countries have systems in place that are supposed to lead to democratic government, but they don’t always work. Kenya’s system is relatively democratic, as changes have made it easier for everyone to participate, but there are still problems with corruption and tensions between different ethnic groups. Nigeria has a federal framework and requires regional participation, but its democratic processes are harmed by the power of the elite and corruption that runs through the whole system. Evaluations by groups like Freedom House show that both countries are still only partly free democracies. This shows that more changes need to be made to improve democratic government.