The Prevention of Electoral Violence Approach

The PEV approach is the broader framework of a number of activities, also copyright protected by ECES namely LEAD and EPEA, fitted into two phases: one preventative phase and one management phase.

The preventative phase entails understanding the rules of the game in a certain electoral context via the EPEA, identifying key electoral stakeholders that hold the potential to assist in election conflict prevention, and capacitating them using the LEAD curriculum. This preventative phase is about establishing a level of readiness amongst national and grassroots actors and assisting, coordinating and advising on a robust response to electoral conflicts by tackling its root causes.

The second phase is focusing on intervening to manage an already erupted electoral conflict. This is done by utilising the platforms of electoral stakeholders that was established under phase one. It also entails triggering interventions amongst the national and grassroots actors to employ conflict management and mediation & dialogue skills in electoral contexts. The second phase must always be documented as case studies to draw lessons on interventions and see how to use the lessons learned in other situations, contexts, and elections.

As such, the PEV approach also serves as:

• systematic data gathering on election conflict prevention: causes and effects and,
• case studies that are fed into the LEAD curriculum taught to other electoral stakeholders as a real-life sample of election conflict prevention at work.
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The uniqueness of the PEV approach also lies in the sequencing of phases one and two: the phases can and should overlap for achieving the best impact. The PEV approach should be employed all around the electoral cycle and focus on preventing root causes to electoral conflicts that can arise from within the electoral cycle i.e. internal.