To save content items to your account,
please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies.
If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account.
Find out more about saving content to .
To save content items to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org
is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings
on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part
of your Kindle email address below.
Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations.
‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi.
‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Elections in divided societies and in countries undergoing political transitions are precarious events. Hastened democratisation may ignite inter-communal antagonism and mobilise voters for conflict. Sub-national elections are even more prone to challenge national policies to defend regional autonomy and self-determination. The relationship between the Tigray Peoples' Liberation Front (TPLF) and the Ethiopian Federal government had been deteriorating since the coming to power of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in 2018. It was formally breached in September 2020 when the TPLF insisted on organising a separate regional election in Tigray in defiance of the federal government's decision to postpone national elections due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to one of Africa's most devastating civil wars in modern times. In the pursuit of democratic legitimacy, and conversely consciously framing the federal government as non-democratic, the TPLF ‘weaponised’ the election. This article analyses the process leading up to the decision to conduct separate elections in Tigray, its conduct and result. The analysis demonstrates how elections and the contestation to claim a democratic legitimacy in transition countries may contribute to a politics of violence, ultimately leading to war.
This review essay explores the complex subject of peace in Africa by reviewing six volumes. While the African Union and the United Nations identify peace as providing the foundation for development, the quest for sustainable peace in regions of postcolonial Africa has remained elusive. Several works have sought to examine the contemporary pathways to peace currently being explored on the continent. The works under review must be located in this search for sustainable peace in Africa.