Abstract:
The study examines the burdens and outcomes that elections impose on Sub
Saharan African (SSA) countries. Conspicuously missing in the literature is
the extent to which the level of development and literacy moderate the effect
of election on government expenditure; and complexity of ballot paper and
marginality on the proportion of invalid vote in SSA. Using macrodata from
the World Bank and other sources, the study employed the System
Generalised Method of Moment (GMM), Fixed Effect, Random Effect, and
Hausman-Taylor (HT) models to test the hypotheses. We find statistical
evidence to support the claim that level of development and literacy moderate
the effect of election on government expenditure; and complexity of ballot
paper and marginality on rejected ballots. The study recommends that
governments of SSA countries must initiate policies that ensure strong fiscal
discipline during electoral and non-electoral years. In addition, governments,
candidates, political parties and other civil society organisations must intensify
civic education to reduce the rate of rejected ballots in SSA
