Electoral violence and voter turnout in Africa: The necessity for electoral education

Low voter turnout is becoming a global problem given its inherent danger. This study examines the nexus between electoral violence and voter turnout in Africa to ascertain whether a relationship exists between election violence and the dwindling turnout of voters in Africa. We test the hypothesis with linear regression against data generated from 48 presidential and National Assembly elections in twelve African countries between 2004 and 2022. The result shows that violent conditions affect how the electorate turns out to vote. Where the voters perceive violence, they are likely to stay away from voting. Voter turnout decision is contingent on the perceived security situation on the election day. In planning the electoral process, the governments in Africa should provide adequate security to ward off threats of violence by overzealous politicians and their criminal supporters. Again, the Election Management Bodies (EMB) should make effective use of security agencies in the area of intelligence gathering to elicit information on security threats before, during and after the voting process. In an extreme case, the electoral system should go electronic in its voting process, as this will ward off physical attack on voters as they are likely to vote at convenient locations.