Publication

Jul 2020

This paper contends that historically, many elections across the African continent have been marred with violence before, during and after election days. Be it authoritarian regimes or flawed democracies, many countries do not seem to be able to break that cycle and in some countries it appears to be somewhat part of the electoral campaign and strategy to fan the violence. The authors contend that ethnic divisions are also played on by political parties to cement their power, and that it is a fallacy that once a country has had democratic or free and fair elections, they have completed the transition to democracy. As long as majority rulers are able to disregard parts of their population without it having implications at the ballot box, dissatisfaction will manifest itself in violence during elections.

Download English (PDF, 5 pages, 930 KB)
Author Eva Nolle, Talya Parker
Series ISPSW Publications
Issue 710
Publisher Institut für Strategie- Politik- Sicherheits- und Wirtschaftsberatung (ISPSW)
Copyright © 2020 Institut für Strategie- Politik- Sicherheits- und Wirtschaftsberatung (ISPSW)
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