Guide to Risk Factors for Elections in the G5 Sahel Region: Factors Internal to the Electoral Process

The G5 Sahel countries (Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Chad) will organize elections in 2020 and 2021.

These elections will take place in a context in which all are facing serious humanitarian and security challenges, aggravated by the fragility of their institutions. The spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and its socio-economic impacts worsen the situation and even raise questions about the possibility to organize elections in so volatile an environment.

This Guide has been developed to assist decision-makers and practitioners in this context. It provides an overview of 26 process-related risk factors that can trigger or contribute to triggering election-related violence. These internal risk factors are election-specific and do not exist outside of the electoral context. They relate to electoral actors, events, practices and materials that can undermine the credibility of electoral processes or, in the worst-case scenario, trigger or contribute to triggering election-related violence.