Managing Election- Relation Violence for Democratic Stability in Ghana who dare to go against the grain of acceptable norms. In the realm of politics these passive structures, which find expression within the milieu of structural violence, determine who is able to contest and have a fair chance at 133 succeeding. On the face of it, gender does not seem to be the major rationale for physical election-related violence as such violence generally occurs as a result of disputes over issues and positions and not over the sociological construct of social relations between and among the sexes. Indeed, in the few instances when women have been victims of physical violence, it appears that they have suffered(like their male counterparts) as a result of their political party affiliation and not their gender. 134 In the main, women are mostly victims of structural violence, which militates against their efforts to participate and compete in elections. Election-related violence against women and the low numbers of women in elected office are, therefore, attributable to the interaction of a number of factors which includes stereotypes, limited capabilities in terms of political leadership skills, political education, finance, insults, corruption and violence that characterise the 133 According to Sulley Amadu, then Director of the Research, Monitoring and Evaluation Department of the Electoral Commission, a female parliamentary aspirant who was competing against her brother-in-law was prevailed upon first by her family and later, by the entire town, to rescind her decision and support her brother­in-law instead. According to him, she was threatened that going against the advice would put her in trouble. 134 For instance, Ghana recorded election-related violence during the 2008 presidential and parliamentary elections, as well as the Akwatia and Atiwa bye-elections. In all instances, the defining reason for the violence perpetrated by and against women was as a result of their political party affiliation and not necessarily as a result of their being female. For instance in Atiwa where Anita de Souza, National Women's Organiser of the National Democratic Congress was alleged to have run her vehicle into a mob, it was supposedly because the youth of the New Patriotic Party had set up roadblocks to regulate the entry into the town of non-residents. It must be noted that Atiwa is a predominantly pro-NPP constituency and so, the actions targeted the NDC. In the end, although there was violence, it was mainly as a result of differences in political party affiliation and not because of gender. 285