ADEOLA TUKURU examines the proliferation of electoral violence in the country and suggests models capable of mitigating the menace
Indeed, electoral violence has received increasing international attention in recent years due to the devastating effects of outbreaks of violence across the country.
The notion of violence-free elections is encapsulated in the term ‘free and fair’ elections, serving as a benchmark for determining the legitimacy of elections.
Efforts by local and international actors include electoral assistance, peacekeeping and monitoring missions, civic and voter education.
Yet, understanding of the consequences of specific strategies and how their returns can be maximised, remains limited.
Politicians being the target
Violence related to electoral processes often begins way ahead of elections. In some places, politicians are always potential targets of political violence.
Sighting an example was one Ndubisi Ihejirika Irebuarichi who won primaries in his party APGA in 2019 State House of Assembly election in Abia and was asked to relinquish the ticket to another candidate who crossed to APGA from Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) where he had lost in the PDP primaries.
While explaining to Blueprint, said Ndubisi’s opponent upon going for election, lost again to an All Progressives (APC’s) candidate but turned around to blame Ndubisi that he used his political machinery to work against him which made him to lose the election.
Ndubisi said that hired assassins were sent to kill him and they also claimed that he is an homosexual, an information they got from Ndubusi’s old time friend which was obviously not true .
Restrictions of political rights
Citizens at large may feel constrained to openly and freely voice political views, engage in public debates, and organise themselves politically. In addition to restrictions of political rights, the consequences of such an insecure environment include difficulties in holding politicians accountable.
Electoral violence needs to be continuously addressed. Conventionally, there is a focus on national and general elections. For instance, electoral violence monitoring and citizen’s and party education programmes are concentrated on the period ahead of such elections.
However, bye-elections are sometimes even more prone to violence than the general elections, and violence can also take place between elections.
Call for policy on electoral violence management
Therefore, to prevent and manage seriously the causes and consequences of violence, a policy for electoral violence management – especially monitoring and voter-centred strategies – needs to be carried out on a long-term basis and continue between general elections.
Yiaga Agrica findings on election violence
According to the report, Yiaga Africa Watching The Vote (WTV) deployed its Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT) methodology said it was observed that the there was acts of violence, intimidation, harassment, and assault directed against women especially female voters, polling officials, security, party agents or observers in six per cent of polling units at the just concluded general election.
Nigerian elections are signposted with practices that compromise the freedom of choice and undermine political legitimacy.
Yiaga Africa notes with great concern the menace of vote-buying and the impunity exhibited by major political actors in procuring votes with huge amounts of cash during the Ondo governorship election.
Across several polling units, the secrecy of the ballot was severely compromised despite attempts by polling officials to prevent voters and party agents from showing how ballot papers were marked.
The conclusion of the report, Yiaga Africa also advised the winner of the election and his supporters to be magnanimous in victory. And it also acknowledged and commended various stakeholders who made the election process a success.
“For those candidates who did not win, we urge them to accept the results because they reflect the votes cast. Yiaga Africa calls upon all candidates, all parties, and all Nigerians to show political maturity and to maintain the peace”.
Stakeholders charting the way forward
Stakeholders have brought to attention the successfully conducted programme addressing violence and elections in Guyana where the Social Cohesion Programme was created as part of the electoral assistance, integrating several areas and stakeholders relevant for prevention of electoral violence such as political parties , ethnic relations commission etc.
Another model, developed by EISA and the Independent Electoral Commission of South Africa established a Conflict Management Panel , in which mediators are identified by stakeholders and drawn from respected communities and religious leaders, leaders that belong to different ethinic and religious groups .
International opinion on pre and post election violence
The mediators are presented to and agreed upon with political parties and trained to deal with pre-, during and post-election violence at all levels. The Conflict Management Model was used in different places such as South Africa (1999), DRC (1996), Lesotho (2002) and Zambia (2006).
The DRC case was especially successful as the trained mediators have been used even afterwards in resolving community disputes including household conflicts, land disputes and other problems at grassroots level.
Different methodologies are also mentioned by Debashis Sen, based on the Indian example. These include vulnerability maps where areas that have history of violence are identified and security forces are deployed in these areas; phased election schedule if adequate security forces are not available; intensive observation by independent observers so that each polling station is covered at least once on the polling day; automatic re-poll if violence occurs and rule of law enforcement weeks ahead of the polls by organizing Flag Marches, rounding up criminals and executing arrest warrants.
Methodologies to monitor electoral violence
There are other several organizations that have already developed specific tools and methodologies to monitor and eliminate electoral violence. Tihana Blanc points to the IFES Election Violence Education and Resolution (EVER) methodology, which records incidents of electoral violence throughout electoral process.
These incidents are broken down into specific components such as motives, victims, perpetrators, responses and impacts of violence. After thorough analysis, patterns are established and findings are presented to electoral commissions, government agencies, security forces and other relevant stakeholders, who are thought to craft responses that will ultimately prevent or mitigate further electoral violence.