History of Electoral Violence Electoral violence was experienced in the first election in Zimbabwe in 1980 with an assassination attempt on candidate Robert Mugabe. The parliamentary election of 1995 was described as a “non-election” because in 40 per cent of the constituencies Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) was the only party contesting. Similarly, in the presidential election of 1996, Robert Mugabe was the only candidate. The 2000 Referendum and General Election Electoral violence as it is currently manifested had its defining moment in the post-election phase of the constitutional referendum of 2000. The government suffered a loss and began its campaign of violence in the run-up to the 2000 parliamentary election. In the pre-election period, … [Read more...]
Mali Presidential and Parliamentary Elections 2018
Elections in Mali have largely been violence-free and deemed credible by domestic and international stakeholders. At the same time, a short-lived military coup d’état and conflict in the northern half of the country between the Tuareg rebels and Islamist militias are factors that create vulnerabilities for electoral violence in 2018 when Malians are scheduled to cast ballots for president in July and parliament in November. The recent conflicts can be traced back to 2012. In March of that year, just weeks before the end of President Amadou Touman Touré’s term of office, a coup d’état was led by Captain Amadou Sanogo. In April, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) brokered a political agreement between the mutineers and the government and recognized a transitional … [Read more...]
Electoral Violence in Liberia 1997 to 2017
This year Liberia will conduct its third presidential and legislative election since the end of the civil conflict in 2003. The elections are scheduled for October 10. However, the National Elections Commission (NEC) faces significant financial and operational challenges to maintain this electoral calendar and the events leading up to it: accreditation of election observers, voter registration, commencement of civic education among other responsibilities. And, the legacy of the civil war, unemployed youth, identity politics, and a ‘winner takes all’ political culture combine to create continuing vulnerabilities for electoral violence to occur again in 2017. In 1996, a peace agreement was signed which ended the First Liberian Civil War. That war lasted from 1989 until 1997 and … [Read more...]
Sierra Leone: An Electoral Security Balancing Act
On March 7, 2018, voters in Sierra Leone will go to the polls to elect a president, national legislature, and local representatives. Since the civil war ceasefire in 2002 (and even before the war), violence has been a persistent feature of elections in Sierra Leone, and the elections next year possess unique vulnerabilities for such violence to recur. The president is constitutionally barred from seeking a third term in office. As a result, since this is the conclusion of President Ernest Koroma’s second term, the seat is open. This open seat is intensifying intra-party and inter-party conflict, within the ruling All People’s Congress (APC), but particularly within the main opposition party - Sierra Leone’s People’s Party (SLPP) – among those seeking to become the ‘flag bearer’ … [Read more...]
The Prospects for Electoral Violence in Honduras 2017
While most Hondurans will observe that there is not a history of electoral violence in their country, in 2013, Honduras experienced a spate of such violence, principally directed at candidates and members of the opposition Partido Libertad y Refundacion (LIBRE). The political legacy of the 2009 coup d’état against President Manuel Zelaya’s rumored bid to extend his term continues to foster cleavages in the polity between right and left; and elites and others. In fact, President Zelaya’s perceived drift to the left by the elites and business community was viewed by some observers as the underlying motive for the coup. And, along these lines, the trigger may have been his decision to conduct a plebiscite for a convention to re-write the constitution allowing for wider public participation in … [Read more...]
The Gambia: Enforcing Election Results through a Military Intervention
At first, Gambian President Yahya Jammeh’s accepted defeat in the December 1, 2016 election to Adama Barrow. It appeared that Gambia would experience a rare peaceful transfer of power. Jammeh seized the presidency as a 29-year-old Army officer in a 1994 coup d’état and had ruled the country for 23 years. However, on December 5, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), citing arithmetic errors discovered in their review of the results, amended the results which narrowed Barrow’s overall victory margin from 9% to 4%. The final results are shown below: Barrow 222,708 (43.3%) Jammeh 208,487 (39.6%) Mana Kandeh 89,768 votes (17.1%) Ironically, Jammeh removed the provision of the constitution to have a second round if a … [Read more...]
Devolution and Electoral Violence: Has Kenya’s County System Created New Arenas for the Organization of Election-Related Conflict?
By Aditi Malik, Assistant Professor of Political Science, California State University, San Marcos Earlier this year, political tensions escalated in Kenya, as opposition leaders organized protests calling for the dissolution of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), the body that is tasked with conducting and overseeing referendums and elections in the country. To some, the violence—which included police crackdowns on protesters—suggested that Kenya could be entering yet another conflict-ridden election season, especially since 44 percent of the voting population was found to have low faith in the IEBC. Fortunately, in mid-June, the opposition announced an indefinite suspension to the protests, and stated that “significant progress” had been made to … [Read more...]
Electoral violence and voter backlash: Do violent electoral tactics hurt candidates more than they help?
Political tensions in Kenya are high in the run-up to elections scheduled for next year. Opposition leaders have led angry protests against the country’s electoral commission and have accused the government of everything from rampant corruption and ethnic favoritism to involvement in the murder of a prominent businessman. Meanwhile, security forces have forcefully broken up opposition protests, and government leaders accuse the opposition of disregarding Kenya’s constitution and the political process in favor of rioting in the streets. Given the country’s history of election-related violence, it’s no surprise that many observers believe the risk of violence breaking out around next year’s elections is rising. In Kenya, as in many other countries around the world, … [Read more...]
