Some countries are more advanced or developed than others in politics. These developed countries have somehow achieved political stability, but new democracies in Nigeria, are still struggling to stabilize. For those countries with stable democracy, the stages or procedures for voting are few. For instance, United States of America may not have to start forming political parties or creating constituencies or even electoral commission. There are no hard and fast rules about these stages, as they vary from country to country. These procedures are highlighted as follows:
1. Ban on political activities and formation of political parties must be lifted.
2. Setting up institutions and organizations such as Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to organize and conduct free and fair election.
3. Rules and regulations called electoral acts governing the conduct of elections are established.
4. Delimitation or creation of constituencies involves division of the country into constituencies, for the purpose of electing people into the house of representatives.
5. Registration of voters.
6. Nomination and screening of candidates.
7. Preparation of reliable election time table.
8. Commencement of campaigns done by registered political parties and candidates contesting election.
9. Display of voters’ register containing the names of all registered voters for the people to see.
10. Appointment of well-trained ad-hoc staff to be used by the electoral commission and assignment of electoral officials to the various polling centres.
11. Distribution of the electoral materials and commencement of actual voting at the various centres.
12. The final thing is the counting of votes and announcement of election results by the electoral staff.