Edge of a Precipice: Multi-Party electoral violence in Jirapa Municipal in Ghana before and after the 2020 national elections

Countries in Africa experience both violent and non-violent conflicts during elections. Ghana, specifically Jirapa Municipality, has experienced this challenge in eight national elections since 1992. The Theory of Social Identity was used to establish the theoretical framework. The mixed research design for data collection and analyses was adopted. The study administered household questionnaires with a sample size of 400, and interviewed 15 key informants. The questionnaires were analyzed descriptively using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 22 while the interviews were analyzed using the thematic analysis. The results showed that the major multiple causal factors responsible for the periodic violence were youth unemployment, political parties/politicians seeking re-election, clientelism and inadequate political education. These have had an effect on the social structure of the community relative to weakened communal cohesion, reduced loyalty to traditional leaders, voter apathy, weak public institutions, slowed down economic activities and general distortion of democratic development. The study recommends that the dictates of chapter nine of the 1992 Fourth Republican Constitution of Ghana should be strictly followed by public institutions in charge of electoral governance without biases.