Elections are Not an Island: The Process of Negotiating and Designing Post-Conflict Electoral Institutions

Much of the conventional wisdom relating to post-conflict elections fails to take three critical factors into account. First, elections are often debated and planned in a way that is linked only tenuously to other parts of the emerging institutional framework, although experience of transition shows that the impact of electoral frameworks is intimately connected with issues addressed in constitution building processes, political party systems, and provisions relating to the establishment of legislative bodies at all levels.