Elections and violent political conflicts in Africa

Abstract

Pre- and post-election violence on the continent has been a recurring phenomenon since the re-introduction of multi-party politics in 1990. However, democracy and elections theorists on the continent understand that democracy consists of considerably more than just multiparty elections. They hold that first, there must be a willingness to lose elections and not to win them by any means, including killing one’s opponents. The 2007/08 and 2009 violence in Kenya and Zimbabwe, respectively, serve as a lesson for African political elites not to take challenges associated with free, fair, and transparent elections lightly.