Elections are a potent tool to defuse conflict and create a means of finding negotiated resolutions. As these peaceful means seek to resolve inter alia social, political, ethnic, religious and economic divisions, an election is a period of heightened tensions.
Security is pervasive in this process and can affect both the actual, and perceived, legitimacy of the electoral outcomes. An equitably secure environment for electoral participants is fundamental to their engagement in the process, and by extension, the goal of an election itself.
Whether or not an election lifts a conflict out of violence, or generates conflict, is strongly influenced by the integration of effective security policies and practices, into the electoral process.
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