Votes and Violence: Experimental Evidence from a Nigerian Election.

Following the wave of democratization during the 1990s, elections are now common in low-income societies. However, frequently elections are not peaceful. We investigate the Nigerian presidential election of 2007, which is to date the largest election held in Africa and one seriously marred by violence. Through a large randomized experiment we establish that voter intimidation is effective in reducing voter turnout, and that the violence was systematically associated with the weakest party. Whereas the incumbent party may have an absolute advantage in violence, we suggest that it has a comparative advantage in two other techniques, vote buying and ballot fraud. Voter intimidation may be a strategy of the weak analogous to terrorism