Geographic influence on voting and geography of representation are major themes in in electoral geography. Studies relating to issues emanating from these major themes have been done mostly in advanced democracies of the word. This study using Nigeria, a developing country, as a case study explores two important issues in electoral geography. _x000D_
Focusing on Nigeria’s 1979 and 1999 general elections with specific emphasis on the presidential and house of representatives elections of these said periods, this paper examined the spatial pattern of voter’s turn-out in Nigeria with a view of identifying the significance of “friends and neighbours” factor on the presidential elections. The paper also examined the relationship between population and the apportionment of electoral district (federal constituency)._x000D_
Data used in this study were collected mainly from secondary sources while population projection were made based on the country’s 1963 and 1991 census figures respectively. _x000D_
Two hypotheses were tested in this study: (¡) there is an inverse relationship between distance from home state of presidential candidates and votes they won and (¡¡) there is a significant relationship between population and the number of house of representatives’ seats apportioned to each state. Statistical analysis of the hypotheses shows that there is an inverse relationship between distance and votes cast for six of the seven presidential candidates considered and there is no significant relationship between population and electoral districts apportionment in 1999._x000D_
The results of this study show that distance is not the only factor that affected votes won by the candidates. The implication of this is that there are deviations from the “friends and neighbours” phenomenon in Nigeria’s presidential election. The result also revealed that population is not the only factor that determines electoral district apportionment in Nigeria._x000D_
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Femi Agholor
Independent Researcher

 
ID Abstract: 827