ON THE ISSUE OF ELECTORAL VIOLENCE

Democracy has come to be accepted as a comparatively better system of running a state. This is without prejudice to the belief of some scholars who holds a different view. Traced back to the ancient Greek city states, democracy allows the minority to have their opinion while the majority rules. It talks of forming a representative government, composed of individuals who are elected into specific positions to form government and administer the state on behalf of the people. To achieve this, there has to be elections to allow the people elect their representatives. Hence, one of the critical features of democracy is an electoral umpire saddled with the responsibility of conducting periodic elections. 

Election comes with much ado, creating heightened tension in the society with much rhetoric from the political elites. An otherwise friendly exercise, election and electioneering appear to have become a zero sum game in recent days. The world observed with awe the 2024 US presidential election where a frontrunner in the exercise experienced gun attacks during the campaign period.  It presented a dangerous dimension to electioneering, especially in view of the part of the world where such incident occurred. Although not new, the incident has brought the issue of electoral violence to the front burner, globally.

In Africa, elections, where it, held are often marred by a level of violence. It has become a recurring decimal in the continents political system. However, the dynamics are different from one country to another. This manifests in various forms and at different degrees. They include voter intimidation or harassment; snatching of election materials; and intimidation of electoral officials. Watchers of the system have blamed such acts on intense competition created by multi-party system; history of political conflicts as a result of socioeconomic inequalities; and perhaps most importantly, weak institution as the electoral umpire is often embroiled in controversy associated with lack of transparency and manipulations by the political class. 

The level of damage done to a political system by electoral violence is usually humongous. To say that such unsavory developments have far reaching implications is just to state the obvious. Besides the fact that it results in loss of lives and property, it erodes trust and confidence on not only the relevant institutions involved in the whole electioneering process, but also on the government as an entity. It also results in the enthronement of often less capable individuals who ordinarily may not be able to clinch representative positions. This results in mediocrity in government with attendant poor policy formulation and implementation. The ultimate implication is that development will be stifled. Additionally, electoral violence substantially undermines democracy and negates the idea of free representation. Furthermore, the boldness with which political tugs carry out electoral violence and are not held accountable often encourage the culture impunity. This is in addition to the possibility of such acts truncating election process leading to the disruption of electoral calendar and attendant waste of resources.

In view of the negatives associated with electoral violence, the need to address the menace remains not to be overemphasized. To this end, countries that are billed to hold elections in 2025 such as Malawi; Central African Republic; Burkina Faso; Tanzania; Seychelles to mention a few may wish to consider emplacing necessary measures to discourage and avoid electoral violence during the elections.