The Joint Task Force and International IDEA, in collaboration with its partners through the Train4Dev initiatve, the UNDP Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery (BCPR), the UNDP Bureau for Development Policy (BDP) and the Barcelona International Peace Resource Center, organized a Thematic Workshop on Elections, Violence and Conflict Prevention in Barcelona 22-26 March 2010.

Elections and electoral processes provides a means by which social conflict can be channeled into a constructive popular deliberation and dialogue with common rules for choosing representatives of the people to fulfill executive and legislative functions.

Robust democratic institutions are usually understood as the ultimate guarantor for social peace.

By providing a framework within which people can voice their concerns through peaceful debate, elections are critical tools for social conflict management.

Credible elections contribute to the creation of legitimate governments that enjoys popular support for programmes and policies and that has the capacity of ensuring community security.

However, because electoral processes are intrinsically about the attainment of political power often in high-stake contexts, elections – as a process of competition for power – can often be catalysts of conflict.

This is especially so when political contesters aim to secure their turf by mobilize along extremist lines to win support.