Electoral Violence Early Warning and Infrastructures for Peace

Abstract

Outbreaks of election-related violence can be devastating, but experience has shown that they can be prevented. The need for improved efficiency of electoral violence early warning and prevention is increasingly argued. Good practices – developed nationally, regionally and globally – offer useful understanding of the phenomenon and of what can be done to improve prevention and mitigation. Although diverse and contingent on mandates and contexts in which organisations operate, early warning and prevention methodologies have common denominators that can be comparatively analysed. The establishment of national infrastructures for peace, which are also mandated to coordinate early warning, prevention and mitigation of electoral violence, helps to ensure that the impact of such efforts is maximised.