Abstract
Election is an important characteristics of a democratic process and a democratic nation. It allows for the emergence of a leader through
majority decision of the people but in most jurisdictions, particularly in third world countries like Nigeria, politicians have devised means to circumvent the popular decision of the people by the orchestration of violence and by voter suppression. These acts portend grave danger in Nigerian democracy as well as every other
democratic nation where they are prevalent, in that it leads to killings, assaults, arsons, inefficient public service delivery, bad
governance, unemployment and they have human rights implications. To minimize the effects of electoral violence and voter
suppression, the Nigerian Government employed legislation to regulate the incidence of electoral violence and voter suppression in
her electoral process. This article aims at examining the concepts of electoral violence and voter suppression in Nigeria, while the
objectives includes to examine the causes of electoral violence and voter suppression in Nigeria, consequences of electoral violence
and so on. The findings of this work show that the causes of electoral violence and voter suppression include abuse of power,
rigging of election, corruption. Based on these findings, there is need for a law establishing an Independent Electoral Offences Commission to prosecute all electoral offences in Nigeria.
