Chapter 6 image such persons present to voters. This often results in patronage spending ties between political aspirants and local party members. As a result, there is the likelihood of intra-party conflict, especially in cases where defeated aspirants use their support base within local party structures to dispute the results of primary elections, or even defect from the party after the primaries(Ichino and Nathan, 2011; 2012). The likelihood of patronage politics, especially at the grassroots level to engender violence or conflict, both at the intra and inter-party levels cannot be underestimated. This linkage will be discussed further in subsequent sections of the chapter. Due to the high stakes attached to political power in Africa, elections are characterized by fierce competition. More often than not, supporters of political parties or candidates have the tendency to resort to violent conduct to promote the interest of their political patrons, considering the rewards at stake for them should the latter emerge victorious from the elections. Sisk defines electoral violence as politically motivated violence in which actors resort to coercion as an instrument to advance their interests or achieve specific political ends through actions such as violence against people, property or the electoral process before, during or after elections(Sisk, 2008:5-6). Such methods, geared towards winning political competition for power through violence, subvert the electoral and political process(Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, 2001). The tools of the trade include the intimidation and disempowerment of political opponents. Electoral violence can also be explained from cultural and structural perspectives. The cultural perspective presupposes the existence of a political culture of thuggery, which generally predisposes actors to resort to violence and intimidation during 186