Paper short abstract:

This paper analyzes election related violence in the Ghana 2016 presidential and parliamentary elections.

Paper long abstract:

Competitive elections test the durability of democracies. Multi-party elections in many countries in sub-Saharan Africa have been characterized by violence. Even more stable democracies such as Ghana have not escaped the menace of electoral violence. In preparation for the country's seventh general election since re-democratization, the Ghana Police Service in September 2016, identified over 5,000 hotspots where election related violence was likely to occur. Electoral violence was likely to surface in nearly 30 percent of the country's 275 constituencies. What criteria are used in mapping electoral violence hotspots? Three factors are crucial: (i) history of electoral violence and security development in the area, (ii) conflicts trends between ethnic communities (including chieftaincy & land disputes), and (iii) campaign rhetoric of the main political parties and how the media reports it. The paper's analysis will make three important contributions. Theoretically, this paper will contribute to our understanding of the spatial distribution of violence involving political parties. Methodologically, it will show the criteria used by all major stakeholders in identifying violence hotspots. Empirically, the paper will make a significant contribution to the dataset on election related violence in a maturing democracy.