This study examines the problems of election logistics and political meddling and their effects on African elections. It relies essentially on primary data drawn from participant observation and 53 key participant interviews conducted across 16 electoral wards in Southeastern Nigeria during the 2019 election. The study reveals some logistical problems involved in the hiring of public transport services (‘town service’ buses) to convey electoral materials in Nigeria such as poor ethical conduct among public transporters/drivers, lack of effective mobilization of drivers, poor compliance with road safety standards, breach of contract agreement, ineffective information sharing on the flow of election materials, and complicity in electoral malpractices. Also, poor road networks result in random breakdowns of hired ‘town service’ buses. Local politicians leverage these gaps to meddle in election logistics which orchestrate electoral fraud. The study sheds light on the need to streamline election logistics and develop ballot tracking systems in order to improve the distribution, tracking, and retrieval of sensitive and non-sensitive election materials during elections.

本研究考察了选举后勤和政治干预的问题及其对非洲选举的影响。它主要依靠从参与者观察和2019年大选期间在尼日利亚东南部16个选举区进行的53个主要参与者访谈中获得的主要数据。该研究揭示了在尼日利亚租用公共运输服务（“城市服务”公共汽车）以运送选举资料所涉及的一些后勤问题，例如公共运输者/驾驶员的道德操守差，缺乏有效的驾驶员动员，对道路安全的依从性差标准，违反合同协议，关于选举资料流的无效信息共享以及选举舞弊行为的共谋。此外，不良的道路网络会导致所租用的“城市服务”公交车出现随机故障。当地政客利用这些空白来介入选举后勤工作，以策划选举欺诈活动。该研究揭示了简化选举后勤流程和开发投票跟踪系统的必要性，以改善选举期间敏感和非敏感选举材料的分配，跟踪和检索。