Main Article Content
Abstract
Pre-election administration is central to electoral process while the legal framework and voter registration are also central to election administration. The integrity of election results is determined by the management of pre-election administration most especially the legal framework and the voter registration. Right from Nigerian independence, electoral manipulations are linked to both the poor conduct and management of legal framework and voter registration. This trend still continues in the Nigeria present democratic Fourth Republic. This development has greatly dented the integrity and credibility of election results. It is against this background that this paper attempts to examine and analysis the 2019 Nigeria’s pre-election administration on legal framework and voter registration. To properly take off, the study adopts secondary source of data collection using textbooks, journals, election reports, internet, newspapers, magazines and other relevant unpublished materials. Democratic theory and equality theory are adopted as foundation upon which the arguments or discussions on the paper are based. The paper reveals that there were a number of amendments made to the Constitution in 2018 which had some bearing on election matters but nothing was done to Electoral Act regarding amendment. However, some aspects of the legal framework used for the conduct of 2019 elections are deficient. On voter registration, continuous voter registration exercise took place in 2017 to 2018, lasted for sixteen months. The paper revealed that there are some disparities identified in the exercise. It is then concluded that legal framework and voter registration played significant role in the 2019 elections. Alternative options are provided to stem the identified challenges for future elections.