Steem Engagement Challenge -season 8 (week 3)//Election In My Country

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Hello,
beautiful people of @steemCameroon Community I hope you are all doing well.
Today I will be participating on the steem engagement challenge -season 8 (week 3)// election in my country.

Before I start I will like to introduce myself, my name is Victor Gregory and I'm from Nigeria and this is the first time of me writing in this community, hope I'm welcome here. As you must have heard, Nigeria is conducting a general election since 25th February, 2023 and will end on 18th February, 2023 which makes this week challenge more interesting for me.

What is election?

In a lay man understanding, election is the process or voting someone into a position or being voted for.

But according to

Encyclopedia Britannica:
"election, the formal process of selecting a person for public office or of accepting or rejecting a political proposition by voting."
Source

Since we have known what election is all about I will be using the contest guidelines for later explanation of how election is being conducted in my country, the procedure for election etc.

What I think about "elections" in my country

My country Nigeria runs a democratic system of government and every 4 years election is being conducted to elect new officials to replace those ones that are not doing well or that are incapable of leading the masses and every 8 years all the federal and state government officials are re-elected by the people, but unfortunately this has done little or no benefit to the poor masses, since the election is mostly run by 2 elite parties. Thus, every person elected is who the elites have chosen and the people have no option but to vote-in another elite who usually serve has a tool to enriched the elites parties. This as always been the case, not until this year presidential election which was made up of 3 strong party. The party which Contested with the other 2 was strongly supported by the poor masses and although he didn't win we hope for a change next election since this is just the beginning.
Overall, elections in my country (Nigeria) is for the elites for now until someone that will help the masses emerge as a winner.

How election is being conducted in my country

Step 1 Interested persons are usually ask to pick a form for the position they are contesting for by the electoral board. Which in our case is INEC(independent national electoral commission)

Step 2 Just like every country with a democratic system of government, election is first of all conducted in "Primary" which is usually a year before the year of the election.

"Primary election is an election that is conducted by the individual party to choose a person that will be running for the election."

Step 3 After the candidates for the election is chosen by their individual party the next step is to present he/she to the general public through campaigns and rally this is also where their party manifesto will be read.

Step 4 Also people who are interested in helping with the election process are usually ask to summit their application for training.
During training this applicants are taught how to handle the election materials.
Some of the election materials used in this year presidential election include;

(i)BVAS( bimodal verification authentication system): just like the name imply, it is used to verify the voters; either through fingerprint, facial or through the voters registration number.

Source

ii Ballot paper it is where the voter thumbprint to vote, the ballot paper is consist of individual papers which is usually torn out, stamped, and sign by the election officer before issuing out to the voter to vote through thumbprinting with ink.

Source
The voter have to thumb print it rightly for his/her vote to be valid

Source.

iii Ballot box: this is where the voter is to cast his/her vote

Source

The vote must be cast while folding side to side to avoid others looking at what he/she voted.

Source

Step 5 After all this training comes the election, the election starts by 8:30am and end by 2:30pm provided no body is on the voting line. By 4:00pm all the election materials must be summited to the INEC office for Counting and sorting.

Step 6 the election results is publish within 24 hours.

Is the election transparent and fair in my country?

Well we all know that there's nothing like a transparent and fair election in Africa as a whole.
For instance, During this year election in my country (Nigeria), INEC was promising a transparent and fair election by introducing the BVAS to curb election rigging, but unfortunately the election was still rigged.this as left me with sadness when ever I think of the present State of the country.

The way forward

• the government officials should start working on themselves by improving the standard of living of the masses so that they can vote without looking for incentive

• INEC officials should also work independently during election period without trying to favor any individual

• the voter's card should be upgraded to smart card so that people can vote anyway during election without having to go to the polling unit.

• election process should be automated to reduce election malpractices .

Conclusion

Thanks for reading, kindly drop your comment below.
I invite
@bossj23 @usoro01 @uduak3287 to participate in this contest.
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