Violence between the campaigns of women candidates in local elections in Uganda

This research contributes to the scholarship at the intersection of gender and politics, and political violence studies more generally, by examining the role of gender in the perpetration of election related violence. Practitioners and scholars alike have documented violence, intimidation, and harassment perpetrated by men, against women candidates and office holders in an ever-expanding range of countries (Bardall 2011; Ballington 2016; Valverde, 2010; 2013; 2016; Krook and Sanin, 2016; Krook 2020; Schneider and Carroll, 2020). Scholars of political violence, on the other hand, find that women are not only the victims of violence, but may also perpetrate violence (Sjoberg 2014; 2016; Davis 2017; Wood 2019). We find evidence from local council elections in Uganda that women candidates do experience a wide range of types of violence during elections perpetrated by male opponents, and motivated by sexism and gender discrimination. However, we also document a significant number of instances of female perpetrated violence, and violence perpetrated on behalf of female candidates motivated by factional or partisan political conflicts. Violence between the campaigns of women candidates is especially prevalent in women’s (reserved) quota seat races—a novel finding in the study of election violence. An election violence incident report (EVIR) developed for the project was administered in among ‘hard to reach’ politically active rural populations of candidates, party agents, elected officials, and voters. Violent incidents comprise the unit of analysis, and data come from informants almost all of whom directly experienced or observed the violence. The findings corroborate other scholarship on election violence that highlight how institutional frameworks can condition the emergence of electoral violence, and posit that reserved seat quota systems may increase the likelihood of violence between women candidates during elections.