Women and Electoral Violence: The Case of Mozambique

Electoral violenceElectoral violence is a common problem in Mozambican elections but how it affects women in any of their roles as electoral actors (candidates, voters, journalists, party workers, sympathizers and members of parties and campaign supporters) is deeply misunderstood. The main purpose of this chapter is to examine patterns of electoral violenceElectoral violence experienced by women as a “total social factTotal social fact” and to gauge how it affects women electoral participation. Drawing from two case studies conducted in the Mocuba and Chókwè Mozambican municipal districts, this chapter argues that electoral violenceElectoral violence is also a reproduction of the daily gender relation power into the political arena. Electoral violenceElectoral violence is experienced indiscriminately by both men and women. However, while men are generally victimsVictims of physical violencePhysical violence, women are also victimsVictims of symbolicSymbolic violence forms of electoral violenceElectoral violence such as economic and psychological. Electoral gender-based violenceGender-based violence is trigged by neopatrimonialismNeo-patrimonialism culture, “social controlSocial control” of the vote, interpartisan and intrapartisanIntra-partisan asymmetric distribution of resources and patriarchal authoritarianismPatriarchal authoritarianism. ItAuthoritarianism concludes that gender-based electoral violenceElectoral violence is a residue of the historical trajectory of violence and the authoritarian governmentalityGovernmentality and its persistence reflects difficulties in the democratic transitionDemocratic transition.