Ibadan Journal of the Social Sciences
Volume 23, No. 2, 2025
DOI: 10.36108/ijss/5202.32.0220
Influence of Psycho-demographic Factors on Low Voter Turnout in the 2019 Presidential Election among Residents of Mafoluku Registration Areas (Wards) of Lagos State
Monday Ojo1 and Peter Olapegba2
1Department of Social Sciences, Yaba College of Technology, Lagos, Nigeria
2Department of Psychology, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria
Abstract
Low voter turnout brings about the election of political leaders who are not people’s choice since only the minorities are recorded to have cast their vote on election day. Yet, public policies are likely to be affected especially if the competencies of these elected officials are in doubt. This study was therefore designed to investigate the psycho-demographic factors (patriotism, fear of election violence, perceived quality of candidate, learned helplessness and age) influence of low voter turnout in the 2019 Presidential election among residents of Mafoluku registration areas (wards) of Lagos State where content analysis of the 2019 presidential election results obtained from INEC revealed has the lowest voter turnout in Nigeria. The research design was crosssectional and using the Yamane sample size determination formula, data was collected from four hundred respondents (400) who were purposively and randomly selected with ages ranging from 20 years and above, a mean age of 25.21 and standard deviation of 3.76 using a structured questionnaire with established psychometric properties made up of 53-items. The result indicates that patriotism, fear of election violence, perceived quality of candidate, learned helplessness and age jointly influenced low voter turnout (R = 152; R2 = .141; F (5,385) = 13.831). Independently, fear of election violence (β =.347, p = .000) and perceived quality of candidate (β=.155, p<.007 predict low voter turnout. The study emphasised the importance of fear of election violence and perceived quality of candidates in determining voters’ turnout and suggested the introductions of electronic voting as an option to physical presence of voters at the polling booth and the platform for independent candidacy to complement political parties.
Keywords: Electronic voting, independent candidacy, Lagos State, low voter turnout, Mafoluku registration area (ward)