Free and fair elections are known in political theory to be dependable sources of legitimacy for regimes in
democracy.
The 1999, 2003 and 2007 set of electionsin Nigeria have shown real difficulty in marrying elections and
democracy. Can democracy exist without the
people? It appears that the people are excluded by elite forces suspicious of themselves to trust voters with rationality. Many lack past records of performance in political offices and seek to return. For a few others, "god fatherism" seems to have become entrenched against freedom of the people to participate in the political process. Post election election adjudication process over violations of electoral standards, have also seen the public neglected, at least in regard to the position of the civil society.This paper seeks to illuminate the dynamics of elections and the role of citizens. It seels to determine the extent to which democracy can claim democracy without citizen involment, drawing on the volume of theoretical and emperical literature on democracy. Nigeria provides rich case for the debate on these issues.