Abstract
M.A. (Politics)
This thesis analyses the role of the African Union in resolving election related conflict in Africa through a focus on its structures, legal frameworks and processes. It focuses on the African Union’s role in post-election violence in Kenya in 2008 and in Côte d’Ivoire in 2011. The study examines the utility of the African Union’s Peace and Security Architecture in election related conflict highlighting its challenges and its opportunities to enhance its capacity in this regard. Institutional theory guided the research, which aided in understanding how the decision-making processes relating to conflict management are applied and how these enhanced or affected the organisation’s role in election related conflict. The research established that the African Union’s ability to manage election related conflict is undermined by the culture of the organisation (protecting incumbents), a “soft approach” towards managing election related violence (establishing governments of national unity) and the interventions of the International Community. Furthermore, the study found that the African Union faces a number of challenges in managing election related conflict, such as a lack of resources, a lack of ratification and implementation of legal frameworks and disunity among leaders: these challenges have undermined the institutionalisation of the organisations’ norms for democratic development in Africa. The study recommends that, the African Union should address these implementation challenges through follow up mechanisms such as, enforcing its sanctions regime to ensure that States ratify and implement key instruments. Also, introduce stringent penalties on countries that default on their financial contribution to the African Union and by improving the information technology infrastructure to complement Continental Early Warning System efforts, in turn making the organisation more proactive to electoral related violence. These challenges undermine the African Union’s election monitoring activities. This study demonstrates that the full operationalisation of the African Union’s Peace and Security Architecture has a long way to go and recommends that its member states commit more resources in order to prevent, manage and resolve election related conflict.