BUSINESS DAY Monday 17 September 2018
BusinessDay Research and Inteligence Unit
Buhari vs others: what to learn from the 2015 voting pattern
Recent political realignment in the country in the two main political parties, All Progessive Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) show a desperation to galvanize supports across boards and seize power come 2019. But to enable us have a good grasp of how 2019 election may play out, an analysis of the 2015 general election, which was adjudged to be one of the freest, fairest and most credible election in the history of Nigeria, will suffice.
T
he All Progressive Congress (APC), a coalition of T the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), All Nigeria Peoples
Party (ANPP) and splitter factions from other political parties snatched power from the the ruling party, the PDP, an unprecedented victory marking the first time in the country an incumbent president lost an election to an opposition party. A look at the numbers will provide insightful answers as to what led to this twist in the nation’s politico-historical narratives.
As at 2015, the total population of Nigeria was put at about 180 million people. While the number of registered voters was 68.8 million (INEC reported 67.4 million during the declaration of the 2015 election result), only about 47 per cent of the registered voters were accredited to vote. More so, of these registered voters, less than half (43.7 per cent) cast their vote; a figure that vividly portray the level of voter apathy – a plague that have imperceptibly eaten deep into the fabrics of the country’s political system – that pervades the election.
2015 IN NUMBERS 2015 IN NUMBERS
Population
Registered Voters INEC
180 million
53%
68.8 million
Registered but didn’t vote
43.7%
voted
3.3%
Accredited but didn’t vote
(measure of voters apathy)