Preventing Electoral Violence in Africa: Towards Sustainable Peace

Electoral violence constitutes one of the most daunting challenges inhibiting the deepening of democratic governance in Africa today. It is one of the intractable features that mark the continent’s pervasive culture of violence. Of the top ten most violent countries globally, two are in Africa (i.e. Lesotho and South Africa). Most African countries rank very low on the Global Peace Index suggesting that the continent is home to the most violent conflicts globally. This explains in part why Africa occupies a second spot to the Americas in terms of very high rates of homicide murders. Perpetrators of political violence are many and varied and include both national and external actors. Understanding the scope and magnitude of electoral violence requires a deep-dive into the political economy analysis that reveals that this violence is traceable to both deep-seated (invisible) structural conditions and more proximate superstructural (visible) triggers/catalysts. Addressing electoral violence through the electoral cycle alone is an exercise in futility. While electoral and governance reforms are useful strategies for redressing electoral violence, a much more comprehensive approach ought to encompass democracy-building, peace-building, and deliberate pursuit of equitable and inclusive socio-economic development. This is simply because, in the final analysis, democracy, peace, and development are mutually intertwined and inextricably interwoven. They should be pursued simultaneously and concurrently and not sequentially. This is the principal thrust of this chapter.