Confronting Military Violence in Africa’s Electoral Spaces: Law, Institutions, and Remedies

The presence of the military in political spaces is a disturbing phenomenon around the world, with Africa being most affected, yet researchers have been limited by a paucity of granular data on effective institutional responses to this phenomenon. A key political process where the military has exerted their presence is the electoral space. Elections are a contested space by nature; they are a political process meant to give effect to the democratic agenda through opening a window for political change. However, in Africa, electoral contests have always been marred by vice and violence thereby negating the democratic aspirations they are meant to advance. State and non-state actors have entered this contested space, and deployed violence to achieve political goals. Through a qualitative, comparative analysis, this chapter interrogates the form and nature of military violence in electoral spaces on the African continent with a view to suggesting mechanisms that must characterize responsive, accountability, and oversight mechanisms. Thus, the current chapter problematizes violence perpetrated by the military and proposes an institutional response mechanism that could be considered to address the problem.