ELECTION QUALITY: JUDGEMENT AND MEASUREMENT CHALLENGES Ibrahim Sani & Abdul-Majeed Alkali Department of Political Science, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto INTRODUCTION Judging and measuring the quality of elections has never been easy. Several electoral studies, election observer groups and democracy promoters have highlighted the difficulty associated with judging the quality of an election. For example, Jorgen Elklit and Andrew Reynolds (2005) in their seminal work – “A framework for Systematic Study of Election Quality” believed that every election has “some margin of errors” as it is almost impossible to get an election which is not being infected by “defective ballots, incomplete voter registers, inaccuracies in counting, impersonation” and other discrepancies (Mozaffar & Schedler, 2002; Elklit & Reynolds, 2005). Also, increasing interests in election quality indicated that judging and measuring election quality face three major challenges. First, there are the inordinate complexities of electoral processes which made it difficult to find clear cut observable indicators. Second is the challenge of tracking and documenting various form of irregularities associate with the conduct of election. Lastly and very significantly, is whose recollection and narration is to trust: the electorate, electoral stakeholders or country experts’ judgements. 1 Any attempt at empirical assessment of election quality requires comprehensive criteria for inclusion and exclusion in the 1 Some scholars favoured the perception of the electorates who are the major players in the field of voting (Kerr, 2013 ; Bratton, 2013) and others prefer an expert based perceptual surveys (Bland, Green, & Moore, 2013; Norris, 2013; Norris, Frank, & Martinez iComa, 2013; Norris, 2014; Norris, 2014). selection of variables and methods. In other words, to achieve a reliable framework for the examination of election’s quality requires a concise definition of credible election, disintegrating same to clear observable indicators; explanation of what and whose voice to listen and consider; 2 and clear lenses for taking the patches, batches and hunches of the information collected into a whole for valid inferences. This is important as both experts in political science and election promoting organisations are in need of reliable framework within which to judge several elections. This paper examines these theoretical and methodological challenges and proposes a concise criterion for gauging the credibility of elections. It focuses first, on the major conceptual challenges facing scholars of comparative politics particularly operationalising election integrity so as to ease empirical observations. Thereafter, it explores the myriad of difficulties associated with providing valid and accurate data for judging the credibility of elections, suggesting simple ways that could ameliorate election research difficulties. The penultimate suggests ways and methods for ensuring reliability and validity of inferences and concludes by indicating that the claim is not a calved in stone, but a step towards valid assessment. 2 While using tested methods and protocols could be an easier option, few of existing techniques could fit the purposes and questions raised by the current research. The focus is on strategies of data gathering more than on particular techniques. Sokoto Journal of the Social Sciences Vol. 6: No.2, December, 2016 ISNN: Print 1595-2738, Online 2384-7654 372