Project: Local Patterns of Election-Related Violence and Peace

Local Patterns of Election-Related Violence and Peace

This project is a partnership between the Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa (EISA) and University of Michigan, with support from the University of Witwatersrand (Wits) to leverage election observer missions and local election results to inform the challenges of building sustainable peace in Africa. It collates results from roughly 300 polling stations in countries where EISA will send election observer missions from late 2018 through the end of 2019. Election observers on the ground will gather information about security arrangements, incidents of political violence, and public infrastructure and services in the areas served by individual polling stations. The information they collect will be geocoded and linked to local election returns. The resulting data sets will allow academics and practitioners to analyze the relationship between elections and violence and to identify local factors – such as public infrastructure and services – that can inform efforts to promote sustainable peace in Africa.