Electoral processes are supposed to offer a level playing field on which the quality of parties’ electoral manifesto will determine their chances of success. In reality, election campaigning and party actions can go beyond political rhetoric. In some contexts, political actors resort to different forms of psychological and physical violence in order to try and ensure that their electoral success is secured prior to election day. Such actions mostly take place during the electoral campaign period. They involve aggressive party activists, recruited thugs or members of party militias who commit acts of harassment, intimidation, assaults, violence against women and girls, destruction of property, political assassinations and other unlawful acts. Actions are directed against political opponents, their supporters, journalists and others. These scenarios are particularly dangerous as a single provocative or violent action may trigger responses and thereby kick-start a vicious circle.

Empirical cases:

•       Guatemala presidential and legislative elections 2011. The run-up to the election was marked by violent acts committed by political parties and their supporters, with more than 20 election-related deaths reported.[1] In February 2011 a mayoral candidate for the National Union for Hope-Grand National Alliance (UNE-GANA) was assassinated in a restaurant. Another, similar murder involved an UNE-GANA mayoral candidate’s son, who was killed in February 2011. There were claims that a politician from the oppositional party Patriot Party (PP) was involved in plotting the murder.[2]

Interrelated factors: presence of non-state armed actors (external); presence of organized crime (external);[3] problematic voter registration (internal).[4]

·         Nepal Constituent Assembly Election, 2013. Elections for a new constituent assembly were initiated in Nepal after the May 2012 dissolution of the first assembly, which had failed to agree on a new constitution. A coalition of 33 parties opposed to the election engaged in a range of protest actions, including the destruction of voter registration material, burning copies of the election code of conduct, destruction of campaign material and obstruction of political campaigning-[5] The ad hoc coalition then initiated a transport strike during the week before the election, with the aim of blocking voters from travelling to their home villages to vote. Vehicles that did not respect the strike were allegedly attacked and set on fire with petrol bombs. The attacks injured many and killed one truck driver.[6] Violence culminated on Election Day, when a bomb explosion in a Kathmandu polling station was reported. A splinter group from the Nepal Communist Party (CPN), the CPN Revolutionary–Maoist, claimed responsibility for these explosions. Despite these events, voter turnout was high. [7]

Interrelated factors: Poor socio-economic conditions (external); Grievances relating to genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes (external); Conflict related to changing power dynamics (external).