Introduction

Democracy has a bloody history in many countries. In Kenya, several hundred people were killed in the aftermath of the December 2007 election, generating extensive media coverage around the world. However, this was not the first time Kenya experienced violence around elections. In the 1997 election, more than 100 people were killed ahead of the election and some 100,000 people left Mombasa during the election period. Another 200 people in Rift Valley faced a violent death. The 1992 election has been deemed even more violent. While Kenya has largely been calm in between elections, violence has also proven to intensify or cluster around election times in countries already experiencing violent confrontation or civil war, as has been the case in Afghanistan and Iraq. Yet, despite the prevalence of electoral violence, it has generated scant academic interest.

Why are some elections fraught with violence, while others are relatively calm? This article addresses electoral violence in Sri Lanka, with the aim of identifying factors which can explain the variation in electoral violence over time. A comparison is made between three parliamentary elections (2000, 2001 and 2004), which display a variation both in intensity of violence and the geographical focus of the violence. Sri Lanka is an important case to study, since it has experienced substantial electoral violence parallel to an ongoing armed conflict.