Gender aspects of political violence in Uganda: A comparison of candidates on open -and reserved seats

Election campaigns are sometimes violent and historically they have been male dominated with men developing the rules of the game. As women candidates have become increasingly involved in election campaigns, they have experienced violence that has been found to be gendered in for example magnitude and form. Yet we do not know whether women’s increased participation in election campaigns is likely to change toxic dynamics in politics by decreasing the magnitude of violence. We address this question by analyzing violence targeting political candidates in a country – Uganda – in which violence is normalized in politics and where significant amounts of violence is perpetrated by political opponents. Representatives are elected in two separate ways: one type of seat is open for all candidates, and one is open only for women candidates. We examine whether candidates who run on women’s seats experience less violence than candidates who aim for an open seat. Thus, we test the hypothesis that campaigns that involve mainly women are less antagonistic – and less violent – than campaigns in which mainly men are candidates. We draw on a survey of elected and non-elected candidates (N=1,006) standing in the 2016 and 2021 legislative elections. Preliminary analyses show that candidates running on women’s seats report significantly less experiences with violence across all forms of violence (psychological, physical, and sexual) than candidates running on open seats.