Introduction

Why do voters vote for corrupt politicians against their interests? In the case of Nigeria for

instance, corrupt leaders are being reelected to their political position as the result of vote-

buying. Vote buying is a pervasive occurrence in which the voter sells his or her vote to the

highest bidder (Sule et al., 2018). The act of vote-buying can never stop voters from voting the

corrupted politicians. A comprehensive examination of the practice of vote-buying in Nigeria

finds that it can potentially contribute to the growing body of knowledge about vote-buying and

electoral fraud. Socioeconomic circumstances, such as poverty, unemployment, and illiteracy,

enhance vote-buying, increasing the politicians' corrupt minds. As a result of these circumstances

among the citizens, voters sell their votes to these corrupted politicians (Omisore, 2013).

Vote-buying may also be ensured by the voting procedures of a particular election system.

According to Attahiru Jega, a former head of Independent National Electoral Commission

(INEC) in Nigeria, politicians bribe the election officials and security agents during election to

rig the election for the for their party which is a serious threat to the democratic system. This act

of bribing is an evident that vote-buying (the exchange of cash or gifts for votes) is a significant

issue in Nigeria's political process which lead voters reelecting the corrupt politicians back to the

power (Sule et al., 2018).

Reelection of these politicians or corrupt political office-holders has become an important topic

in social science; it is likely that the reelection of politicians (corrupt plays a role in maintaining

good democratic governance. Corrupt politicians engage in immoral or illegal acts for personal

gains, such as taking or bribing others. Whether they are incumbent or running for other political

offices does affect how citizens perceive democracy (Školník, 2020).

It is commonly agreed that holding elected officials accountable for their conduct diminishes

politicians' incentives to engage in corruption. Accountability in elections is contingent upon the

public's ability to obtain information about elected politicians’ records. When confronted with

allegations of corruption, the majority of voters believe they will punish the perpetrators. The

impact of corruption on voters' decision-making varies significantly and is related to political

cleavages. As a result, more transparency can have a variety of political consequences even when

both candidates are corrupt. These effects for the voters are frequently neglected by voters

(Ondo, 2020).

Increased voter access to information may persuade individuals who support an untrustworthy

leader to refrain from voting. In the developing countries such as Nigeria, voters do not view

corruption (corrupted politicians) as a critical issue; therefore, they exchange their votes with

money and gift to solve their present problem neglecting the outcome of reelecting the corrupted

leaders (Omisore, 2013). This study unleash the reasons voters reelect bad politicians into for the

second time despite their bad and corrupt behaviour. One of the major goal of this study is to

examined the reasons for voters reelecting corrupted politicians which is against the interest of

the voters. As expected, when politicians are inefficient, they should be removed from their

elected office by the same voters. With this in mind, we would expect Nigerian voters to vote out

corrupt politicians with this in mind, yet Nigerian voters continue to vote and reelect corrupt

politicians. Given the electorate's democratic power to sanction politicians and doing the

opposite by their continuous reelection of these corrupt leaders. Understanding these will

contribute extensively to Nigerian voters.

Research problem