Trends in electoral violence in Sub-Saharan Africa

In Africa, conflict and tension during elections are common occurrences - many of these new democracies find it difficult to manage political opposition. The management of the tensions can determine whether an election proceeds peacefully versus one that degenerates into violence.

This Peace Brief provides an overview of the characteristics of electoral violence and the responses taken by national governments and the international community to address electoral violence.The paper observes that the regularity with which electoral violence occurs points to underlying grievances or structural characteristics. It highlights these as:

• Land – the politicization of poor land tenure laws motivates violence in some cases

• Economic marginalization – where politicians exploit sentiments of economic discrimination or dominance of one ethnic group by another

• Ethnic marginalization – tribal or identity politics are a dominant characteristic of recurrent electoral violence.

The paper says electoral conflict may slow the consolidation of democracy because violence can undermine the entire election by keeping voters away from registering and voting. Candidates may withdraw, or politicians may use it as a reason to cancel or postpone the election. When domestic and international observers judge that an election has been marred by violence, the legitimacy of the result is jeopardized, as is the legitimacy of the elected official. Electoral violence can serve as a precursor to civil war.

The paper uses case studies to suggest the following ways of managing electoral violence:

• In some countries - for instance Ghana - electoral violence observers are trained and deployed in places to likely to experience violence where they collect data on incidents of violence. Government officials, religious leaders and civil society hold workshops promoting peace, use mass media to encourage peaceful elections, and organize educational events to promote non-violence
  
  
• For countries less successful in preventing electoral violence, like Kenya, commissions are established to inquire into the cause or extent of the violence - it may be treated as a passing phenomenon or it may be addressed as a criminal matter
  
  
• Employing a more robust response, some countries, like Kenya, Zimbabwe, Togo, and Zanzibar, develop a political agreement between opposition groups and the government to tackle the underlying causes of violence and election mismanagement.
  

In conclusion the paper calls for further research to improve the measurement of electoral violence and its causes, its effects on democratisation and effective methods of managing the eruption of electoral violence.