Question 5
- State three types of elections.
- Explain four purposes elections serve in a democratic state.
Observation
This was another popular question and was attempted by almost all the candidates. The performance of the candidates who answered it was good as they really understood its demands. However, some candidates did not do well in the (b) part and they scored low marks by listing the
points without further explanations. The candidates were expected to provide the following answers to the question.
- Direct election.
- Indirect election/Electoral College system.
- Bye election.
- General election.
- Primary election.
- Supplementary /inconclusive.
- Re –run election.
- Run- off/second ballot.
- Staggered election.
- Choices/selection of leadership.
- Confers legitimacy on government/office holders.
- Promotion of accountability and transparency in governance.
- Promotion of political participation.
- Ensures smooth transfer of political power/change of government.
- Promotes political education through campaign.
- It serves as an index to measure the popularity of both party and candidates.
- It ensures competition between or among political parties.
- It helps to measure the level of citizen’s political commitment to the political system.
- Election helps to promote sense of belonging.
- It serves as a means of ensuring that political sovereignty is vested in the people in a democracy.
- It helps to promote good governance and curtails dictatorial tendencies of government.