Indirect election is best described as?

Step 1: Analyze the question The question asks which option best describes an indirect election. The key is the word "indirect": the voters do not choose the final office-holders themselves.

Step 2: Explain the concept

• Direct election: Eligible citizens vote personally for the candidate they want. Examples are Nigerian presidential, governorship, and National Assembly elections.
• Indirect election: Citizens choose a smaller group of people (delegates or electors), and that group then elects the office-holders. An example is the US Electoral College, which elects the President. Nigeria's Second Republic debates and the 1979 and 1989 arrangements also featured electoral college ideas. Another example is a legislature electing a Senate President or a Speaker.

Step 3: Evaluate the options

• A. Only women electing legislators: This describes a restriction by gender, not the method of election. Wrong.
• B. The citizenry electing legislators: This is a direct election, because the people vote for the legislators themselves. Wrong.
• C. Electoral college electing legislators: An intermediary body does the electing, not the general public. This is the indirect method. Correct.
• D. Only adults electing legislators: This only describes the age requirement for voting (universal adult suffrage). Wrong.

Step 4: Answer Indirect election is best described as an electoral college electing legislators, which is option C.

Exam tip: Think "indirect = intermediary." If a middle group (electoral college, delegates, parliament) stands between the citizens and the final choice, it is indirect. If citizens vote straight for the candidate, it is direct.