To evaluate the effectiveness of electoral reforms in enhancing the credibility and management of elections in Nigeria, with a focus on the post-2023 general elections.

This research study evaluates the legal institution reforms, specifically the impact of present and past electoral reforms in Nigeria, the
use of BVAS, on public trust, electoral transparency, voter participation (especially among women and youth), and overall electoral credibility in the country’s six geopolitical zones. The study also examines the gaps and limitations of current reforms and evaluates whether
these reforms have positively impacted democratic consolidation in the country. The component of Nigeria electoral reforms includes financial autonomy on the electoral umpire, introduction of electronic processes, exclusion of political parties acting as voting delegate or
aspirant and constant reform improvement through reforms.
This study explores the justification for reforms, assess the mechanism adopted to promote electoral reforms. Generally, the reforms have been targeted on institutions as a strong election management body with substantial administrative and autonomy at promoting
democratic political culture within parties and the populace. Drawing concrete insights from the 2023 Nigeria general election. Over the years Nigeria has faced election fraud leading Nigerians to lose trust in the electoral process. In 2022, the new Electoral Act was introduced
creating more opportunities for the integration of technologies like the BVAS and IREV to improve voter accreditation, results transmission, and real time election viewership for stakeholders. Nigerians were excited hoping the Act will restore voter confidence in the
country. However, the outcome of the election, especially the presidential election in 2023 indicated that the Act failed to meet expectations of Nigerians. This study furthermore examines the Electoral Act 2022 and the credibility of the 2023 general election in Nigeria. It discussed why the act fails to mitigate insecurity and making sure of efficient transmission and viewing of election results which are key to free and fair election using a mixed research approach, data collection and analysis. This study receives direct response from Voters, CSOs, INEC, Stakeholders, literatures, election observers and media
reports. This study concludes that the Reforms particularly BVAS, positively affected accreditation integrity but did not fully resolve systemic weakness. Challenges of poor logistics, lack of
strategic planning and implementation by the stakeholders, contested result transmission, and underrepresentation of women and youth continue to undermine Nigeria’s democratic stability. Therefore, the researchers recommend that the Civil Society both senior and junior revisit to strengthen and scale grassroots voter education, create safe spaces for marginalized groups, and synergize more to create and own a trusted citizen driven electoral accountability platform that can hold INEC accountable in election process and continued election monitoring. The government should enforce stricter penalties for malpractice, adopt gender quotas, intensify measures towards enhancing the capacity of the security agencies to respond to election
security situations, and provide INEC with adequate funding while INEC improve staff training on BVAS, deploy backup systems, ensure sustained improvement in the distribution of election materials across polling units in subsequent elections, work with security agencies to
ensure that all electoral offenders are investigated and prosecuted according to the law, and collaborate more with CSOs and political parties reduce financial barriers for women/youth, adopt inclusive constitution, and strengthen mentorship and voter education across the country before the election commence.