Election Violence

Abstract

Instances of transgressions of law, especially by political leaders and their supporters, have been a visible part of elections in India. Election-related violence of varied kind, though considerably reduced over the years, still occurs. Blatant violence has become rare. A look at the evolution of electoral violence in India helps in understanding why and in what form election violence occurs and how the EC deals with it. Evidence suggests that this particular violence, while endemic in transitional states or nascent democracies, is not absent in long-standing democracies. However, as democracies get increasingly stable, violence declines or becomes sporadic – indicating institutional strengthening and a greater capability of polities to solve differences through institutional mechanisms non-violently. Violence then becomes confined to specific areas within democratic states where greater economic inequality and acrimonious social relations persist. In contexts of deep division, control over political power becomes a do-or-die situation, and here political incumbents and rivals (and, of course, their supporters) take recourse to violence during elections to change electoral outcomes. Elections are held and accepted because of their legitimate value among the larger public and international community, but violence is perpetrated to deal with insecurities of electoral outcome.