A Review of Voter Apathy, Political Decay and Political Development in the South East

Abstract

This paper examined voter apathy, political decay and political development in the South East region of Nigeria. Political development is a change over time in political institutions. Voting is a veritable exercise in democracies that enables the masses to participate in the decision-making process, choose their preferred leadership and enhance political development, while on the other hand, political decay refers to internal political contradictions that lead to the stagnation of political institutions.  Regrettably, from 2015-2023 voters apathy had dominated the general mood of South East voters; and political development emasculated. The electoral processes are married by thuggery, voters harassment by thugs and security personnel in connivance with political gladiators, assassination of political opponents, snatching of ballot boxes, announcing fake results by the electoral umpire, etc. Unfortunately, voter apathy in the zone has led to a discount between the government and the masses, bad governance, dearth of infrastructure and poor political development. The decision-making theory was deployed for this study which emphasized the selection of the best among alternatives, and making the process participative. It was recommended that the electoral processes should be made more democratic and the stagnation of political institutions should be stopped. Voting should be seen as the constitutional right of voters to participate in decision-making and choosing their preferred representatives.