Scholars have documented a correlation between different transnational factors
and players, and a changing dynamics of civil war leading to the spillover of
conflict from one country to another. The effects of diffusion and escalation
are the primary causes of the transnationalisation of war. This paper considers
whether electoral violence is also prone to these effects and therefore to the
transnationalisation phenomenon. Electoral violence carries certain features that
distinguish it from general political violence. It relates specifically to electoral
events, with motives and timing being the determining factors. Firstly, the article
demonstrates that electoral violence prevailed over political violence in the first
phases of the 2015 internal conflict in Burundi. Secondly, it shows that there is
a potential transnationalisation of electoral violence in the Great Lakes region.
This is due to similar regional characteristics and goals of the incumbents, the
similar nature of state institutions, and regional linkages among like-minded
political groups.